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BOSTON-B.B. RUSSELL 



HISTOET 



GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN, 

June 20 and 21, 1877. 



BY 



RUSSELL H. CONWELL, 

AUTHOR OF •' HISTORY OF THE GREAT FIRE IN BOSTON," "LIFE OF 

PRESIDENT HAYES," "WOMAN AND THE LAW," "WHY 

AND HOW THE CHINESE EMIGRATE," ETC. 



" Fire, commissioned by tlie winds, 
Begins on sheds, but, rolling in a round, 
On palaces returns." 



bosto:n": 

PUBLISHED BY B. B. RUSSELL, 55 COENHILL. 

SAINT JOHN, N.B.: JONES & MORRISON. 
TORONTO: MIGHT & TAYLOR. 

1877. 






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3% ♦^ c^ 

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Copyright 
By B. B. EUSSELL. 

1877. 



' • • 



^ 



^ 



"X 



V 



TO THE 

HON. SAMUEL LEONARD TILLEY, C.B., 

LIEUTENAJST-GOVERNOR OF THE PROVINCE 
OF NEW BRUNSWICK, 

THE FRIEND OF HUMAKITY EVERYWHERE, AND AN ACTIVB PRO- 
MOTER OP ALL LEGITIMATE MEASURES FOB 
THE RELIEF OF SAINT JOHN, 

^{jts Uolume 

IS MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED 
BY THE AUTHOR. 



PEEFAOE. 



It is a hideous story at the best, full of the very 
saddest events and the most exciting scenes. The 
contemplation of that disastrous evening, that lurid 
night, that pile of spectral ruins, makes us hesitate 
to dip the pen ; yet it should be written. The 
history of the terrible scourge, with all its frightful 
details, should be preserved in historical form, to 
hand its lessons down to other generations, to show 
that the active sj^mpathy of the civilized world was 
not misplaced, and to immortalize the good and 
brave deeds of that noble people to whose homes 
this iiwful visitation came. R. H. C. 

6 



AOKNOWLEDGMEIifTS. 



The most sincere thanks of the author are due to 
the gentlemen named below, who so kindly, at such 
personal sacrifice, furnished us with facts concerning 
the great fire, and contributed so much to make our 
stay in the afflicted city comfortable, profitable, and 
pleasant. It is a pleasure as well as a duty to write 
about such a people ; and we tremble lest we shall 
fail to make a suitable return herein for the uni- 
versal hospitality of every man we met in St. John. 
To him whose fortunes we mainly follow in the 
opening chapters of this book, we may owe an 
apology for making so free with his narrative ; and 
while we have tried to disguise it by adding inci- 
dents, which, while each one related actually hap- 
pened, he perhaps did not see, yet doubtless many in 
St. John will recognize the actor. 

Our thanks are tendered to Mr. John Boyd, E. 

7 



8 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. 

Lester Peters, James W. Lawrence, John E. Turn- 
bull, James Hannay, Thomas S. Simms, Messrs. 
Jones and Morrison, Frank C. Smith, Thomas Mar- 
ter, Matthew Lindsay, and the Rev. W. Mitchell. 



1LLUSTEATI0K"S. 

• 

^ Steel Plate (Portraits of Lieut.-Gov. Tilley, Mayor S. Z. 

Earle, and John Boyd) .... Frontispiece. 
YiETV OF St. John befoee the Fiee , . . , .25 

St. John ln" Flames 58 

^ Plan of St. John 81 

'^AcADEsiT OF Music. —YiCTOEiA Hotel .... 153 
^ YiEW OF KuiNS (Prince William Street and Yictoria Hotel) . 176 
V Nokth Wharf and Market Square (in ruins). — Mar- 
ket Square (before the fire) ...... 212 

Eeed's Point.— Post Office 230 

Skating Kink. — Beacon Light ..... 270 

9 



OOT^TEI^TS. 



CHAPTER I. 

A HOME IN SAINT JOHN. 

House on Queen's Square. — The Inside of a Merchant's Eesi- 
dence. — Furniture and Keepsakes. — Prophecy of the Old 
Indian. — Forebodings of coming Disaster . . , ,17 



CHAPTER n. 

THE BEGINiOjS'G OF THE FIRE. 

York Point Slip. —The Fire Department. —The Progress of the 
Flames. — Scenes of Excitement. — Burning of Dwellings 
and Warehouses. — Destruction of Vessels. — Strange Be- 
havior of Panic-stricken Ones 27 



CHAPTER m. 

BUENING HOMES. 

Caught by the Flames. — Running the Gauntlet of Fire. — Burn- 
ing of the Dead. — The Ruins of a Home. — Searching for 
lioved Ones. — Surrounded by Fire. — Queen's Square . 

11 



12 CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER lY. 

DSrCIDENTS OF THE FIKK 

Tlie Culmination of the Destruction. — Death, by Fire. — A Life, 
or a Dwelling? — Saving a Handful of Wood. — Losing Gold 
Sovereigns. — Birth of Children amid the Flames and on the 
Bay. —Escape hj Eaft. — The Scene from Ballast Wharf . 50 

CHAPTER V. 

ES" THE VICINITY OF KING'S SQUABE. 

The Stationary Vehicle. — The Merchandise in King's Square. 

— Appearance of the Refugees. — The Old Burying-Ground. 

— The Shelterless Ones. — Removal to New Homes . . 60 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE PEOPLE BEFOKE THE FLRE. 

The Metropolis of New Brunswick. — Character of its Founders. 

— Culture of the People, — Public and Private Enterprise. — 
Public Buildings, Commerce, Manufacturing, &c. . . . 71 

CHAPTER Vn. 

THE CITY BEFORE THE FTRE. 

The Situation of the City. —The Dwellings. — The Public Build- 
ings. — The Churches. — The Environs. — The Scenery. — 
The Harbor. — The Business Enterprises 76 

CHAPTER VIIL 

mSTOmCAL SKETCH OF SALNT JOHN. 

From 1604 to 1775. —Discovery by the French. — Fort La Tour. 

— Contest between La Tour and Charnisay. — Grant of 



CONTENTS. 13 

PAGE 

Lands. — Indian "Wars. — Pirates. — Expeditions from Bos- 
ton. — War between the English and French. — Naval En- 
gagements. — Capture of Fort La Tour. — Erection of a 
Blockhouse 80 



CHAPTEE IK. 

HISTOmCAIi SKETCH OF SAINT JOHN. 

From 1774 to 1874. — Establishment of Government. — War be- 
tween the Colonies and Great Britain. — Indian Warfare. — 
The Opening of Trade. — Landing of the Loyalists, — Great 
Fires in Saint John. — First Church. — First Newspaper. — 
Visits from Distinguished Persons. — War with France. — 
War of 1812.— Facts and Incidents of Eecent History . . 105 

CHAPTEE X. 

THE GREAT FIRE. 

The Origin unknown. — The Sudden Appearance of the Flames. 
— The Spread of the Calamity. — The Fire Department. — 
The Streets and Wharves destroyed. —The Public Build- 
ings. —The Shipping. —The Churches. —Explosions, Deaths, 
Accidents, &c 146 

CHAPTEE XI. 

SCENES ATTENDING THE CONFLAGKATION. 

Similarity to the Fire in London.— The Description of that 
Calamity applied to this. — Scenes of Confusion. — Acts of 
Heroism. — Effect of the Fire upon Men's Natural Disposi- 
tions. — Thieves. —Deaths by Fire. — Sheltering a Homeless 
People. — All Things common 160 



14 CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

CHAPTER Xn. 

AFTER THE FIRB. 

The Euinsf — Obliteration of Streets. — Appearance of the 
Squares. — Exodus of the People. — Establishment of Busi- 
ness Quarters. — Absence of Food. — Danger of Starvation . 175 

CHAPTER Xin. 

EXTENT OF THE CALAMITY. 

Estimated Loss. — Great Extent of the Destruction in Propor- 
tion to the Size of the City. — Names of the Owners of 
Buildings. — Names of Occupants. — Business Firms burned 
out. — Roster of Losers by Streets. — The Effect on the 
"Working Classes. — Summary of the Property destroyed . 179 

CHAPTER XIV. 

THE DEAD AND WOUNDED. 

The Number of Deaths unknown. — Eighteen suddenly killed. 
— Deaths in the Hospital. —Mention of Individual Cases. — 
Accidental Burning. — The List of the Injured. — The De- 
pendent Families 217 

CHAPTER XV. 

PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND SHIPPINa. 

Description of the Public Buildings. — Trinity Church. -=- Ger- 
main-street Baptist Church. — Other Church Edifices de- 
stroyed. — City Hall. — The Custom House. — The Post 
Oflfice. — Public Halls. — Academy of Music. — Temperance 
Halls. —Masonic Hall. — Hotels. — Gas Works. — Shipping 
destroyed 223 



CONTENTS. 15 



PAGES 

CHAPTER XVI. 



FRIEin^S m NEED. 

First Assurances of Help. — The Liberality of the People. — 
Telegrams from Cities in America and Europe. — Eeturning 
Past Kindnesses. — The Behavior of the Recipients. — List 
of Contributors. — The Amounts given and received. — 
How Chicago, Boston, and London responded. — Other Cities 
and Towns 242 



CHAPTER XVn. 

ADMDnSTRATION OF RELIEF. 

The First Distribution. — The Random Applications. — The 
Danger from Impostors. — The First Organization. — In- 
effectiveness of Original Plan. — The Great Number of 
Applicants. — How they were supplied. — The_ Introduction 
of the Chicago System. — The New Committee — The Tents 
and Barracks. — Independent Shanties. — How Assistance 
could be obtained 



CHAPTER XVnL 

EEBUILDING THE CITT. 

Character of the People. — Peaceableness of the Inhabitants. — 
Beginning to clear Sivraj the Debris. — Temporary Dwellings. 
— Temporary Storehouses. — General Clearing of the Burned 
District. —Measures for securing Money. — Speech of Mr. 
John Boyd 278 



16 CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

CHAPTER XIX. 

CHURCHES AND SERMONS. 

The Sad Worshippers. — The Meetings for Consultation. — Sad 
as Funerals. — The Sermon of the Rev. D. M. Maclise, D.D. : 
"Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done 
it?" — Sermon of the Rev. John Wills: "Shall a trumpet 
he blown in the city, and the people not be afraid ? " — Ser- 
mon of the Eev. G. M. Armstrong: "I know, O Lord, that 
thy judgments are right " . . 287 

CHAPTER XX. 

MISCEIiLANteOUS MATTERS OF INTEREST. 

The Newspapers of Saint John. — Historical Notice. —Biograph- 
ical Sketch of the Life of Lieut-Gov. Tilley, C. B.— The 
Life of John Boyd, a Private Citizen. — Examples of Saint 
John's Sterling Men. — The City Government. — The Fire 
Department. — The Insurance Companies. — Little Wan- 
derers' Home. — Incidents of the Fire. —Conclusion . . 338 



GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 



CHAPTER I. 

A HOME IK SAINT JOHN. 



House on Queen's Square. — The Inside of a Mercliant's Eesidence. 
— Furniture and Keepsakes. — Prophecy of the Old Indian. — 
Forebodings of coming Disaster. 

npwAVID TOURNAY stood before one of the 
-*-^ large parlor- windows of his spacious and some- 
what imposing residence on Queen's Square, Saint 
John, looking out upon the park. He was a man of 
dignified bearing, having a body short and stout, a 
face round and large, with chin and forehead of the 
recognized English pattern, and wearing his gray 
side-whiskers and thick hair neatly trimmed. The 
accurate cut of his gray coat and lighter-colored 
pants, the gloss of his cuffs and collar, the whiteness 
of his teeth, the bright restless movement of his blue 
eyes, together with his general appearance of scru- 

17 



18 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

pulous neatness, denoted a cultivated and wealthy 
gentleman. He held in one hand a new Manilla hat, 
and in the other a rattan cane with an ivory handle 
secured by a band of gold. 

It was the twentieth day of June, 1877. The 
trees and grass wore their liveliest color and their 
thickest foliage. The fresh sea-breeze which rippled 
the broad river and bay, and shook the leaves on the 
shore, also swung the lace curtains in the open win- 
dows of Saint John's most elegant homes. The hot 
sun which had gleamed for several days with unpleas- 
ant directness upon the valleys and hillsides of the 
undulating city seemed intent upon crumbling the 
rocks into dust, and parching the trees into easy play- 
things for the increasing wind. Impartially did the 
sun inflame and the breezes fan the poor and the 
rich ; the ignorant and the educated alike hid from 
the Gun, and welcomed the western wind. In the 
favors and neglects of air and light, no man can boast 
exclusiveness. But the breezes were none the less 
welcome to David Tournay for having skimmed the 
lowly roofs of many an honest laborer, and ruf&ed 
the hair of numerous human beings lower in the 
social scale than himself, before they slammed the 
shutters and flapped the curtains of his mansion. 
He was not the man to wish others poorer than him- 
self, and had none of that exclusiveness in his man- 



A HOME IN SAINT JOHN. 19 

ner or his home to indicate that he was particularly 
proud of his possessions or of his ancestry. Yet he 
might have been vain in the consciousness of having 
been honored in both ; for he was one of that large 
class of wealthy merchants who have made Saint 
John their home, and who for nearly a hundred years 
have been known as careful, earnest, honest men, 
having a taste for culture, and making generous, 
hearty good-fellowship a fundamental article in 
their social and religious creed. 

That he was in possession of enough to make 
him boastful, could have been clearly established 
by glancing about him as he stood waiting for his 
carriage that day. The parlor where he waited 
was furnished in the most elegant and costly man- 
ner. Neither Nottingham nor Alengon produced a 
prettier design in lace than the curtains at his win; 
dows exhibited. No velvet carpet made to order in 
Benares or Brussels would have exhibited more 
exquisite taste, or harmonized more perfectly with 
the rich plush of the sofas and the artistic decora- 
tions on the walls, than did the carpet his good taste 
had chosen. The chandehers, the mirrors, the rugs, 
the carved tables, the works of art in painting, 
sculpture, and books, the piano and its embroidered 
cover — all were of the richest type. Throughout 
the house, from the spacious cellar to the conven- 



20 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

iently furnislied upper chambers, in drawing-room, 
library, dining-room, hall, sleeping-apartments, bath- 
rooms, and closets, there was no lack of the com- 
forts, conveniences, and elegances of the most 
advanced civilized life. 

For twenty-four years David Tournay and his wife 
had been steadily and carefully selecting articles with 
which to furnish that home. There were the heir- 
looms that told the history of two hundred years. 
There was a sword in the library, which an ancestor 
of Mrs. Tournay captured at Bannockburn. There 
was a musket or blunderbuss hanging near it, which 
an ancestor of David Tournay carried in the roman- 
tic days of De la Tour, when St. John was but a 
fort, and that fort could contain less than a hundred 
followers of that adventurous knight. In bed- 
chamber and hall, in dining-room and kitchen, were 
vases in Parian, cups of ancient china, baskets of 
curious finish, specimens of heathen workmanship 
m iron, gold, ivory, and sandalwood, ancient clocks, 
brackets, quilts, laces, toys, and coins, each the gift 
of some friend or relative more or less dear or cele- 
brated. The Bible from mother, an old portrait of 
himself from grandfather, an autograph of Henry 
VIII., a commission signed by Oliver Cromwell, and 
a violin used once by Paganini, were among the inter- 
esting reminders of near and dear donors long since 
sleeping in the tomb. 



A HOME IN SAINT JOHN. 21 

On the marble table in the parlor lay volumes in 
beautiful bindings, the gifts of authors or distin- 
guished men ; and there were the autograph and 
photograph albums, with the names and faces of all 
the loved friends of boyhood, girlhood, school days, 
years of travel, and years of hard labor. On the 
shelves of his library were two thousand volumes, 
and each had been selected with care. Curious 
boohs, strange and antique, purchased by the owner 
on his commercial trips to England, France, and the 
United States ; old manuscripts of his own writing, 
letters from friends and public officials, poems, his- 
tories, essays, novels, works upon science, art, and 
commerce, — told the beholder how the culture of 
the mind and the accumulation of wealth had moved 
on hand in hand, neither crushing the other, or leav- 
ing its companion behind. Yet this home, with all 
its comforts and valuables, was but one of many 
that stood in the city of Saint John on that day, and 
which would disappear in a cloud of fire and smoke 
before another dawn. 

David Tournay tells the writer (and we call him 
by that name because he shuns the notoriety such a 
book as this would give him) that as he stood look- 
ing out upon the lawn, and carelessly watching the 
boys and girls as they romped through .the park, a 
feeling of gloom seized upon him so unexpectedly 



22 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

and so forcibly tliat he thought he had been 
taken suddenly ill. He put his hand to his heart, 
then to his head; tried his eyesight by looking 
toward the hills away beyond the bay; and then, 
turning quickly to his wife, who sat near him, 
exclaimed, — 

" Mary, I feel strangely to-day : I believe my 
luncheon was too hearty. I have no reason that I 
can recall for feeling despondent, yet I do feel as if 
every friend I have was under the sod." 

Mrs. Tournay looked up with a startled expres- 
sion, her pale face flushing for a moment, and her 
dull eyes brightening unnaturally, and quickly 
responded, — 

" I feel so too, David. But I felt it just as 
strongly before I ate to-day. It may be that watch- 
ing with Ethel, poor girl ! has made me low-spirited. 
David," — and Mrs. Tournay's lips trembled, and the 
tears came as she spoke, — " do you think it possible 
that Ethel will — will — not live ? " 

" Oh, nonsense, Mary, nonsense ! The doctor says 
that she is better, and he ought to know ; and, what 
is more, she appears better. She wanted her book 
and her needlework to-day. She asked after the cat 
and her birdie when I was up there just now. 
Don't think of her dying, Mary : you or I, or both 
of us, may go first, you know." 



A HOME IN SAINT JOHN. 23 

" Yes, it is possible we may, I know ; but I do 
feel as if something awful were going to happen. 
I suppose I am foolish; but that story Plarry told 
the kitchen-maid caused my heart to beat quick, 
although I know it is impossible. Every thing 
makes me gloomy, now that Ethel is so sick." 

" What story did Harry tell ? I did not hear of 
it. Did he say any thing about Ethel ? What does 
he know about her ? " 

"No, no ! " said Mrs. Tournay. " I thought you 
were listening too when he talked with Katie in the 
yard. He said that an old Indian chief told him 
and a number of other boys last Saturday that Saint 
John was going to be destroyed on Tuesday of this 
week (meaning yesterday, of course), and told 
them to advise their parents to move out. He said 
he told his school-teacher about it, and she scolded 
him for believing such nonsense, and lectured the 
whole school upon superstition. She did right in 
that, of course ; and, as the day has already gone by, 
there was nothing in it any way. But for some 
reason it has troubled me so that I think about it, 
and dream about it when I get time to dream about 
any thing. I do wish that I could get over it." 

David walked across the r'oom, through the fold- 
ing-door, into the drawing-room, and looked out the 
window instinctively, as if he thought the boy 



24 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

might be still there talking to the maid. Then 
meditatively returning, he put his hand tenderly on 
his wife's head, and affectionately stroked her 
silvered hair. 

"-Mary," said he, "we have no right to be down- 
hearted and solemn to-day. Just think back 
through the years, and see how we have been 
blessed. You cannot forget those two rooms we 
began to live in ; you cannot forget those long years 
of ceaseless work, trying to earn an honest living. 
Now we have all we want. I was thinking this 
morning, as I went into the warehouse, that, were 
Ethel restored to health, there is nothing more that 
I desire. Of course we are not rich, as the people 
of New York and London estimate riches ; but we 
do have all we can use ; and I think it is time that 
I close out my business, and retire, to enjoy with 
you and Ethel the accumulations of all these hard 
years. Gloomy ! I scout the idea when I stop to 
think. Oh, no, Mary ! what cause have we to be 
sad ? Come, cheer up ! cheer up I I wonder what 
keeps Jim so long. He ought to have been here 
some time ago. Lord! it is now almost three 
o'clock. I'm afraid I shall have to walk down." 

David had left the parlor, and had placed his hand 
upon the knob of the front-door, and his wife was 
just about to ascend the stairs, when he heard a 



m 




A BOMB TN SAINT JOHN. 25 

stroke of the bell on tlie Germain-street Baptist 
Church near by, which was instantly echoed from 
the Centenary Church, and from the old Bell-Tower 
half a mile away. 

"The deuce!" shouted David, "there's afire!" 
and then, feeling that he was unusually nervous, 
and could not find any thing peculiarly excitable in 
an alarm of fire, as the Fire Department usually 
put out the conflagrations in four or five minutes, 
he suddenly assumed a calmer demeanor, and 
counted the strokes. " Two, three, four, five. Oh, 
that is over on Union Street, somewhere down by 
the wharf, I think. It is not within three or four 
blocks of the warehouse, so we are all right. Wish 
I had my property insured in something besides a 
mutual company. But I must go : Jim has come 
with the carriage. Good-by, Mary ; take good care 
of Ethel. I will be back by five o'clock; she will 
be better then, I know. Good-by." 

So saying, he hurried out to the carriage, and, 
hastily seating himself, was driven briskly in the 
direction of Charlotte Street. Had he looked back, 
as he usually did, and as his wife expected he 
would do then, he would have seen her pale face at 
the window, wearing a startlingly ghastly look of 
foreboding and dismay. Ah, could he have had 
even the foresight of the wild man of the forest, he 



26 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

would have known that the repeated alarm-bells, 
still ringing out till twenty-five strokes were tolled 
in chimes of ^\q strokes each, was the knell of a 
city; while, over his own home, disasters frightful 
as war menaced every thing that he loved. 



CHAPTER IT. 

THE BEGINNING OF THE FIEB. 

York Point Slip. —The Fire Department. — The Progress of the 
Flames. — Scenes of Excitement. — Burning of Dwellings and 
Warehouses. — Destruction of Yessels. — Strange Behavior of 
Panic-stricken Ones. 

T TAD David Tournay returned to his residence 
-■ — ■- an hour after he left it, he would have found 
his wife lying asleep on the bed in little Ethel's 
chamber, with the sick girl beside her ; while the 
dark-eyed pallid invalid, without moving her head, 
gazed cautiously at whatever of furniture or decora- 
tion came within range of her eyesight. The fever 
which had raged in her body for so many days had 
left her but a few hours before ; and the con- 
sciousness of the fact that she was better, permitted 
the mother to sleep, and gave the daughter patience 
to lie quiet and disturb not her dreams. It would 
have been fortunate for David if he could have seen 
them, as his quick and experienced ear would have 
detected the clamor of distaait crowds, the cries of 

27 



28 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

" Fire^ fire ! " and the shrill whistle of steam fire- 
engines. His nostrils would have detected the odor 
of smoke and steam ; and his eyes would have seen 
the enormous black cloud which rolled upward and 
eastward, hiding the heavens, and casting an ominous 
shadow on house and park, street and bay. He 
would not have waited long after he had detected 
the deep mutterings of that volcano, before he would 
have aroused his companion, carefully wrapped his 
darling girl in her cloak of ermine, and hastened 
away from the doomed city. Alas ! he was not 
there ; and the wife unconsciously awaited the com- 
ing flames, in a deep refreshing sleep, while the 
daughter attributed the unusual tumult she seemed 
to hear, and the darkening of the sky which she 
seemed to notice, to her own feeble and nervous 
condition. 

David, however, with thoughts of bundles and 
packages of merchandise, of accounts unsettled and 
capital uninvested, was driven to his warehouse, 
where, after bidding his partners and clerks a cheer- 
ful " good-morning," he soon lost himself in the 
usual pile of correspondence. He had been engaged 
thus for a few moments only, when the rush of an 
excited crowd of boys along the street, and the 
repeated cry of " Fire, fire ! " drew him with others 
to the warehouse door. 



THE BEGINNING OF THE FIRE. 29 

" That fire seems to be gaining headway, sir," said 
a gentleman, pointing at the columns of vapor which 
rolled upward in great scrolls and banks, like the 
first upheavals of an approaching thunder-cloud. 

''I think I will go and look at it," said Mr. Tour- 
nay, hastily entering his counting-room, crowding 
his letters under a paper-weight, and seizing his hat 
and cane. " Some poor fellow is meeting with a sad 
loss, I fear." 

" How thankful we ought to be that it is not 
our property ! " said he to himself, as he joined the 
current of human beings which flowed down King 
Street, and westward along Dock Street, toward York 
Point. " Whoever it is," continued he to himself, 
" I shall propose that we make up a purse for him. 
We will show him how good and how pleasant it is 
for brethren to dwell together in unity." 

With such reflections as these Mr. Tournay worked 
himself into quite a cheerful mood, and was half 
hoping for an opportunity to display the good- will of 
his firm, when he came to the corner of Dock and 
Union Streets. Here a gust of wind carrying a 
stifling load of ashes burst upon him, driving him 
suddenly back behind the corner house to regain his 
breath. 

" Great God! " exclaimed he as he glanced again 
around the corner in a momentary lull of the whirl- 



30 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

wind. " The whole wharf is on fire. Smyth Street 
and Nelson Street will go, as sure as fate ! Sir," said 
he to a policeman who came up just then, " how did 
such a fire as this begin ? " 

" No one seems to be able to tell," said the officer. 
" It was first seen at one side of McLaughlin's boiler- 
works, down there on the slip, and probably began 
in a little building^ alono^side. Hare's Wharf is 
going fast. The engines work well, and I see they 
have ordered out old engine No. 3. But water does 
not seem to have any effect. There ! They are 
shifting new No. 3 now. This is a fatal locality for 
fires. Sir, this block back of us has been burned 
six times in seventy years ; and it is about here 
somewhere that the great fires of 1837, 1840, and 
1845, began. I think you had better look sharp to 
your warehouse, for the air is full of burning brands 
and cinders. Just see that storm of them going 
away over to Market Wharf ! My God ! Mr. Tour- 
nay, this is going to be a terrible fire." 

Mr. Tournay waited 'to hear no more; for the 
wind was increasing to a gale, the blinding smoke 
hissed around the corner, the air was dense with 
sparks and dust, and little puffs and jets of smoke 
appearing on the shingles, in crevices of clapboards, 
and joints of window-casings, showed him that in 
a few moments the wooden stores and dwellings all 



THE BEGINNING OF THE FIRE, 81 

about him would be in a flame. Yet he could not 
believe that his warehouse was in any danger. He 
was confident the steam fire-engines would stop the 
conflagration. They were the pride of the city. In 
two minutes only after the clerk struck this alarm, 
the engines began to throw water upon McLaughlin's 
factory ; and he did not see how a fire could get 
away from them. He could scarce credit what he 
himself saw, but under-estimated the danger, in 
whatever form it presented itself. He even so far 
forgot his own property, and had such a feeling of 
confidence in the fire-department, that he delayed 
some time to help a man lift a piano down a flight 
of doorsteps on Union Street, and, with habitual 
business caution, tied up the end-board of the wagon 
as the instrument was being carted away. When 
he reached Prince William Street, and turned 
toward Market Square, the highway before him pre- 
sented a strange scene. The people had begun to 
be excited over the prospect of an extensive con- 
flagration. Every one seemed to be moving his or 
her effects, each in a different direction, and none 
appearing to know whither. As he himself began 
to give way to the panic which was now spreading 
among the people, he quickened his pace to a trot, 
and then to a downright running chase ; thinking 
then, for the first time, that it was among the possi- 



32 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

bilities that neither the fire-department nor the 
intervening blocks of brick and stone would prevent 
the destruction of his warehouse. He ran against 
old ladies with cradles and babies, tongs and dolls ; 
against men with beds, boxes, clothing, chairs, and 
crockery-ware ; overturned boys enveloped in piles 
of table-linen, dragging toy carts and tin hose-car- 
riages. He stumbled over heaps of merchandise, 
broken furniture, stacks of books and picture- 
frames, which the owners, with shouts and screams, 
were endeavoring to convey to a place of safety. 
Some few cool-headed' ones were quickly and sys- 
tematically stowing their goods in wagons, or carry- 
ing them across the street ; but many others were 
excited and unreasonable, doing the strangest and 
most unreasonable things, which at any other time 
would have strained his sides with laughter. 

When he reached Market Square, it seemed as if 
the whole city had instantly started to move. Every 
available vehicle from a dray to a buggy was called 
into requisition, and came crowding into the square. 
The sidewalks were being piled with goods from the 
wholesale houses. Some packages were being hastily 
deposited on the vessels at the wharf ; others were 
carried up King Street to King's Square ; while the 
teams hurried hither and thither, taking goods to 
other stores, or to private houses, or into open lots, 



THE BEGINNING OF THE FIRE. 83 

some to be finally saved, and others to be burned 
even in their place of refuge. Men were upon the 
roofs, and on almost ever}^ projection of the build- 
ings, pouring on water, or extinguishing with rags 
the lodging sparks which showered down upon the 
buildings far and near. The wind was blowing in a 
hurricane, and fanned the furnace behind them until 
with volcanic throes it belched forth burning brands 
of pine which a strong man would have found it 
difficult to carry, and, shooting them high in the 
heavens, let them fall^far to the windward, crashing 
into roofs and windows, or threatening the lives of 
the crowd, about whose heads they whirred and 
hissed as they fell to the pavement. So hot became 
the gusts, and so full of sparks was the air every- 
where in the path of the tempest, that bundles of 
goods tossed from second-story windows were on 
fire before they reached the hands of those who 
caught them in the yard below. 

Here were strange scenes. One man, too faith- 
ful to his employers to think of leaving them for his 
wardrobe and valuables at the burning hotel, or too 
excited to make much account of his feelings or his 
life, stood on the window-casement of the store, and 
passed out goods, unmindful of the fact that his hat 
of straw was blazing and singeing into his scalp. 
One elderly merchant was seen tying up an old um- 



34: GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

brella with a clothes-line, and had to be severely 
shaken by his son before he recovered from his tem- 
porary lunacy. One seized the hose which threw a 
powerful stream, and began driving away at the 
broken packages of dry-goods passing him in the 
street. 

But the action of some of the sailors in the ves- 
sels at the wharves exhibited the strangest freaks of 
absent-mindedness. The harbor was crowded with 
vessels ; and the wharves in the vicinity where the 
fire began were closely lined with ships of various ton- 
nage. Some of these were in such close proximity 
to the fire, and their rigging ignited so quickly, that 
many were destroyed, or badly damaged, before they 
could be pushed out into the bay. Some were towed 
away from the shore, some were forced into the stream 
by men along the wharves, and some were drawn out 
of the sHps by sailors in small row-boats. One old 
sailor, whose vessel lay at Market Wharf, became so 
agitated, that when the sail caught fire he could not 
wait for tug or tide, and taking a small tow-line in 
his teeth leaped overboard, and, as he stoutly claims 
since, actually towed the vessel to safe anchorage by 
swimming against the tide. The officers seem to 
think that the men with spike-poles on the wharf 
had something to do with the movement of the 
ship ; but the sailor does not admit that such was 



THE BEGINNING OF THE FIRE. 35 

the fact. Another at the end of a Water-street slip 
tried to draw water with a cord hammock to extin- 
guish a flame in a bundle of tarred rags. Another 
ran up aloft, and seated himself on the yard, to get 
out of the flames on deck, and was only saved by 
being persuaded to leap into the bay. Another poor 
fellow, whose family reside at Halifax, rowed along- 
side a burning wharf, and saved a man and a woman 
clinging to the timbers; but in so doing was so 
burned, and drew into his lungs so much smoke, that 
he died but a few hours later. 

Mr. Tournay did not stop to ponder upon the 
events transpiring about him ; but, as he crossed Mar- 
ket Square, he saw at a glance the great tongues of 
flame rise over the distant blocks, and, with a hiss 
like that of a bomb, dart over and downward upon 
mast and sail and lumber piles. He saw the sailors 
leaping from rope to rope with pail and sponge. He 
saw the water surging along the half-submerged 
boards, as bucket after bucket was emptied upon the 
decks. He heard the shouts of captains, the yells of 
men along the wharves, the bustle on the piers, the 
confusion which characterized everybody and every 
thing on dock, street, sidewalk, or warehouses ; but 
they made no fixed impression on his mind. 

He hastened, puf&ng and sighing, from store to 



36 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

store; and at last, almost paralyzed with fatigue 
and agitation, he rushed into his warehouse. A 
few minutes had changed every thing without and 
within. Without were eager hurrying masses of 
people, all excited and noisy ; while within were busy 
hands, trained to be systematic and cautious, tying 
bundles, nailing cases, stowing goods near the rear 
windows preparatory to a precipitate removal ; and 
with a celerity which only comes from a thorough 
training in arranging, packing, and economizing 
room, the clerks and porters secured for safe trans- 
portation the vast collection of valuable merchandise 
which the building contained. 

Still believing that the fire might be stayed, as it 
was burning within the fire limits where brick, stone, 
and mortar formed the principal building-material, 
Mr. Tournay's associates hoped to save the building, 
and avoid the expense of removal. They, however, 
took the precaution to send out men to hire express- 
wagons for the removal of their merchandise, having 
but one or two teams of their own. They also sent 
men to the roof and windows to saturate with water 
all the exposed wood-work about the structure. 
The messengers who were sent after the teams soon 
returned, saying that no money could hire a dray- 
man or expressman ; that the fire was demolishing 



THE BEGINNING OF TEE FIRE. 87 

the stone buildings as if they were but mortar ; and 
that wildest confusion reigned in every business 
street. 

Then it was decided by all that the time had come 
to remove the goods as fast as possible. But they 
had waited a few minutes too long. When they 
attempted to raise the windows on the side towards 
the fire, the rush of smoke and cinders was so great 
as to make it impossible to work there, even had not 
the safety of the building been dependent upon 
keeping all such avenues closed. So they tried the 
windows at the rear end of the warehouse ; but the 
change caused such delay in getting the teams 
within reach, that the roof was blazing high when 
the first packages were handed down to the wagons. 
The employees young and old stood b}^ the burning 
building like sailors by a ship, and would not for- 
sake their revered employers, though they felt sure 
their own property in other places was perishing for 
the need of their protection, and that the men they 
served might be too poor on the morrow to pay them 
their wages for even that day. They staid after 
the proprietors told them to go. They threw out 
hundreds of cases and bales after the approaching 
heat had broken the glass in the windows, and let in 
great biUows of fire. They staid until the mer- 



38 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

chandise was ablaze ; and then with scorched faces 
and blistered hands they leaped from the windows 
into the alley, and, hiding from the smoke and flame, 
crawled between old sheds and fences, and thus 
picked their way, more dead than alive, into King's 
Square. 



CHAPTER III. 

BUENING HOMES. 

Caught by the Flames. — Eunning the Gauntlet of Fire. — Burning 
of the Dead. — The Euins of a Home. — Searching for Loved 
Ones. — Surrounded by Fire. — Queen's Square. 

T^AVID TOURNAY was the last person to 
-^-^ leave the warehouse, as he lingered behind to 
be sure that the safe was locked, and that all valu- 
able papers were taken away or deposited. And 
when he reached the rear entrance, and opened the 
door, he was confronted by a solid sheet of flame. 
It was impossible to escape that way ; and he felt his 
heart leap as it occurred to him that those who had 
left but a few moments before by that same way 
must have been burned to death. For it was only a 
short time since they had called him to follow. He 
forced the door back into place, and pressed down 
the latch, catching full in his face as it closed a 
furnace-blast that singed his whiskers, and punctured 
his cheeks with a thousand stings. 

Now what was he to do ? Should he try to gain 

39 



40 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

an upper window ? No : the second and third floors 
were already on fire, and the smoke even then began 
to curl in curious rifts along the ceiling of the ware- 
room in which he stood. The front doors had been 
shut and bolted some time before, to keep out both 
thieves and fire ; but through the crevices in the 
drawn shutters he could see the rushing clouds of 
dust and smoke, with an occasional glare like the 
gleams of lightning at night, which for a moment 
illuminated the store in a lurid, ghastly manner, and 
then left it gloomier than before. This warehouse 
in which he had accumulated his wealth, this build- 
ing from which he was so soon to retire with a 
competency, to be happy all his days with his wife 
and Ethel, was now to be his grave, and the great 
city was to be his funeral pyre. 

Let the writers of romance describe imaginary 
scenes as they may, let poets collect their most 
affecting numbers, and relate with all the license 
of their calling ; but they will not approach any 
thing akin to accuracy in describing a scene like 
this. The pen is poAverless to picture the dismay, 
the horrid apprehensions, which must torture the 
man or woman in Mr. Tournay's situation. There 
are emotions which are so horrid, and .which so sel- 
dom come, that man has no language with which to 
express them. To be burned to death while in 



BURNING nOMES. 41 

complete health ; to die with every thing in his pos- 
session to make life a pleasure ; to leave his wife 
and child alone ; and — ah ! could it be possible ? 
"Would this fire reach Queen's Square ? Might not 
his wife and Ethel be burned for lack of a protector, 
— no one to move the poor ill girl ? 

How many men there are, who, before the Saint 
John fire, have been wrought up to desperate deeds, 
as Mr. Tournay says that he was, by the care and 
love they felt for others, when the thoughts of them- 
selves only weakened their resolution, and confirmed 
their fear ! When he thought of his loved ones in 
distress, he became desperately in earnest, and feared 
not to attempt any thing which might lead to them. 
He instantly decided to go by the front door, for that 
led into the open street, while the rear passage was 
crooked and uncertain. 

Glancing about him for some protection, he saw a 
woollen blanket lying upon a box. He seized it at 
once, swung it over his head, wrapped it close about 
his shoulders ; and, turning the key, he quickly 
opened the door, and darted desperately into the 
street. The spot was like a smelting-furnace. 
Ashes, dust, smoke, and pieces of crumbling ruins, 
went whistling, dashing by, forced on by a typhoon 
which had aiisen after the fire began. It seized 
him, whirled him, lifted him, choked him, but bore 



42 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

him onward, onward, whither he hardly knew. With 
his head completely wrapped in the woollen blanket, 
seeing nothing, hearing nothing, he ran with the 
wind, scarce getting a breath, and uncertain whether 
the next step might not drop him over a precipice, 
or into a burning dwelling. He could feel the 
flame's hot breath scorching his limbs and feet, and 
knew it was a fearful gauntlet he was running. He 
could smell the burning blanket, and knew that his 
race must be a short one, or he would be lost. 

Soon he stumbled against a stone which lay beside 
the street, and, falling headlong, went sprawling in 
the muddy gutter. Here he threw off the blanket 
to see where he had fallen ; and he found himself 
several blocks from the warehouse, but with the fire 
burning in the buildings about him on all sides. 
The houses, however, were smaller, and the danger 
from falling walls was passed. He found too, — 
strange he had not thought of it before, — found 
that as he lay on the ground he was clear of the 
smoke, except when the strongest gusts went by. 
He also found that which was nearly an equal bless- 
ing, — the gutter filled with running water coming 
from hose or hydrant left open by the retreating 
people. 

He had the presence of mind to dip his blanket 
in the filthy water, and, blessing the Yorkshire 



BURNING HOMES. 43 

operators who wove that covering, concealed his 
head again, and ran on as before. It was an easy 
matter now. He could drop to the ground and get 
fresh air at any time, while the wet cloth protected 
him from the smoke as well as from the flame. 

As he turned into Duke Street he ascertained that 
he was leaving the fire behind ; and, after crossing 
Germain Street, he found himself again in the midst 
of human beings : yet the smoke and flying cinders 
were still almost intolerable. 

At that time the whole water-front upon the 
river side of the city was on fire. The conflagra- 
tion had spread in a most unusual and astonishing 
manner. For while the original flames were cours- 
ing down Dock and Nelson Streets, and demolishing 
the structures on Market Wharf, live coals were car- 
ried long distances, and dropped into tarred roofs, or 
bales of hay, or slyly inserted by the wind under 
casings, shingles, or shavings, to spring up into 
hundreds of bonfires wholly unexpected, and conse- 
quently wholly at liberty to grow into wildfires 
without obstruction. In this way the large estab- 
lishment of Dainiel and Boyd on Market Square was 
ignited. In this way the wooden buildings half a 
mile distant and near the Custom House were set on 
fire. So that it was the work of but a short space 
of time, not exceeding forty-five minutes after the 



44 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

fire was in Dock Street, before the whole of the city 
lying between Prince William Street and the water 
was burning nearly as far down as Reed's Point. The 
steam fire-engines had done most excellent service 
in preventing the spread of the flames up Union 
Street beyond Dock Street, as that block where they 
stopped the fire was the key to all that part of the 
city north of King Street, and all of which was 
saved; at a great' sacrifice, however, as we shall see 
hereafter. 

Intent upon nothing but reaching his house, Mr. 
Tournay hurried into Germain Street; but he saw 
the huge columns of smoke back of the Victoria 
Hotel ; and he noticed also that old Trinity Church 
was giving way to the devouring element, which 
had not more respect for things sacred than it had 
for things profane. Even old Trinity, with almost 
a century of history clinging to its walls, with the 
same timbers the Loyalists hewed when they made 
Saint John their home, — even that could burn! 
The swift progress of the disaster thus shown warned 
him not to try to reach Queen's Square by Germain 
Street: and, quickly turning back, he hastened 
toward Charlotte Street, one block farther removed 
from the fire. The air was thick with sparks, which 
kindled into flame on the roofs and porches on 
either side of his way ; but, with the aid of his 
blanket, he made comparatively safe progress. 



BURNING HOMES. 45 

He had not proceeded far, however, from Germain 
Street, before he was rudely seized by a stout hand ; 
and a hoarse sailor's voice shouted, — 

'' Sa}^, friend, give us a hand ! We have moved 
the corpse three times, and it's likely to burn after 
all. Come, give us a lift I just a minute ! " 

" My house is burning : my wife and sick child 
are in it ! I can not, will not stop ! " said Mr. Tour- 
nay, impatiently shaking off the hold of the stranger 
upon his arm. 

" Sorry for you, sir," said the same voice. " It is 
better to be dead than alive in such an hour as this. 
Then I must let the dead past hMxj its dead," he 
added, following closely upon Mr. Tournay's heels, 
and evidently abandoning the body of the dead to 
be burned to ashes. 

At the next corner two young women, frenzied 
with terror, seized Mr. Tournay, and pleaded with 
tears and shrieks that he would save their father. 

" I cannot stop ! I must save my wife ! I must 
save my child!" screamed he, as he pulled and 
dragged at the blanket they so tenaciously held. 

" Oh, come with us ! He was dying when the 
flames drove us away. We took him out of his 
sick-bed : we carried him two blocks ; we could not 
carry him farther. Oh, my God ! my God ! he is 
burning, and no one will help us ! " 



46 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

Mr. Tournay hesitated. But the thought that 
this man, whoever he was, might be already dead, 
while his own wife and child, if saved from the fire, 
would be safe from such a fatal disease, increased his 
determination to go on. He shook them off with a 
desperate jerk, and started down the street. His 
journey was not an easy one, for his path was often 
blockaded by bundles, beds, tables, mirrors, wagons, 
wheelbarrows, books, kettles, and lumber, that the 
doting owners were trying to hurry, in an immense 
variety of conveyances and methods, to a place of 
safety (which, by the way, the greater part of the 
property never found). 

Imagine, if you can, the dismay and heart-sickness 
of that great number of St. John's merchants, when 
they gazed, as Mr. Tournay gazed, upon the crum- 
bling ruins of their homes, — the walls enclosing a 
furnace hot and seething, — and when they felt, as 
he felt, that in all probability the family he loved 
were flayed in its bed of coals. We follow the steps 
of Mr. Tournay, not because his experience was 
more thrilling or more disastrous than that of 
thousands of others, — for we believe that, were the 
details known to those who write or those who 
print, there would be found men whose adventures 
on that afternoon and night were of a much more 
interesting and exciting character, — but we follow 



BURNING HOMES. 47 

him as a representative of the many, and because 
his story happened to be heard under circumstances 
favorable to its perpetuation in history. If the 
reader will multiply Mr. Tournay's sufferings by 
fifteen thousand, and add five thousand for those 
who suffered less but lost their homes, he may, in a 
measure, obtain an idea of this appalling disaster. 

Queen's Square, when David Tournay at last 
reached it, was enveloped in flame upon three sides ; 
and the westerly front was fast succumbing to the 
heat and whirling brands. He could not see his 
house when he entered the square, so thick was the 
intervening cloud. But with a heart aching until he 
half determined to rush into the embers of his home 
and die as they had probably died, he wrapped the 
blanket again about his head, and rushed into the 
middle of the square. The shade-trees and the grass 
were parching with the heat ; and long wings of 
flame swooped down upon them from the roofs of the 
houses, as the countless whirlwinds wrestled and 
fought around the walls of those beautiful homes. 
In the centre of the park, cowering upon the grass 
and among piles of furniture, was a small company 
of women and children, crouching with fear, and un- 
able to move. 

Mr. Tournay thought at first that he detected the 
velvet-trimmed dress of his wife among their num- 



48 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

ber, and hasted with an eagerness he never knew 
before, to scan the smoke-begrimed faces. But those 
he sought were not there. Disheartened, he started 
toward his house ; but the shifting of the wind 
showed him that nothing was left of his beautiful 
residence, with all its priceless treasures, except the 
front wall; while through the ghastly apertures, 
once the windows of a mansion, he could see and 
hear the hideous, remorseless flames. In the single 
glance which he had of his house before the smoke 
returned, he saw that a part of the front door still 
clung to its hinges, and that it was partially open. 
He knew that it had a stout spring lock. He knew 
that he closed it firmly when he left it. Hence 
some person must have opened the door from the hiside^ 
or it would not then be open and swinging upon its 
hinges. He saw enough to give him a hope of their 
escape. Yes, they might have been warned in time ! 
They might have found friends ! And thus attempt- 
ing to quiet his dreadful apprehensions he turned 
away, hoping^ to escape while yet there was an oppor- 
tunity. But as he noticed again the women and 
children, and heard them so pitifully calling after 
him, he said to himself, " These are some other men's 
loved ones, and I will do by them as I so much hope 
some one has done by mine." Then he hurried them 
upon their feet, told them he could take them to a 



BURNING HOMES. 49 

place of safety, called to another forlorn searcher 
like himself for assistance ; and, with many a burn 
and heavy tug with the fainting ladies and fear- 
stricken children, they managed to avoid other 
disasters, and landed the little company safely in 
Carmarthen Street, and started them on their way 
toward the barracks. 



CHAPTER IV. 

INCIDENTS OF THE FIRE. 

The Culmination of the Destruction. —Death by Fire. — A Life, or a 
Dwelling? — Saving a Handful of Wood. — Losing Gold Sove- 
reigns. — Birth of Children amid the Flames and on the Bay. — 
Escape by Baft. —The Scene from Ballast Wharf. 

rr^HE shadows wliicli slowly fell upon the ocean 
-*- and on the distant hills found David Tournay, 
in common with thousands of his townsmen, still 
searching for his loved ones. With an unnatural 
display of endurance, he had passed swiftly from 
street to street, had encountered the fire again and 
again, as it steadily but quickly advanced from 
house to house. He had seen the destroying flames, 
with one flank resting upon the parade-ground at 
the end of the peninsula, and the other upon King 
Street, marching onward with solid front, and 
sweeping every thing before them from the harbor on 
the west to Courtney Bay on the east. He had wit- 
nessed terrible scenes of suffering. Men, women, 
and children had been often carried by him with 

60 



INCIDENTS OF THE FIRE. 51 

burned faces or scorched limbs. The faces of the 
killed, so ghastly and horrible, glared from under 
their uncertain covering, as the uncouth, steaming 
bearers hurried them on to those anxious but hope- 
ful groups which in health and joy the dead had 
left but a few hours before. He had anxiousl}^ 
stared into humble cottages, had unceremoniously 
burst into the doors of deserted mansions, had 
scanned the groups at the water's edge, and the 
crowds in the park, and had called upon all he met 
with whom he claimed any acquaintance, and upon 
many who knew and cared nothing for him, every- 
where asking for his wife and child. 

Once there came rushing toward him an old 
acquaintance, known to all the people as one of 
nature's noblemen, who though far along in years, 
sadly deaf, and bereft by this calamity of his house 
of stone, and his factory in which for years he and 
his sons had driven a profitable trade in window- 
sashes, doors, and blinds, was yet so generous, so 
forgetful of self, as to be unceasingly active in sav- 
ing the lives and property of others. 

" John," said Tournay, putting his lips close to 
the ear of his friend, " have you seen or heard any 
thing of my wife or child ? " 

" No, I have not seen your wife and child ; but I 
have seen many wives and children of other men, 



52 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

looking for their husbands and fathers : sorry yours 
were not among them. O David ! I have seen such 
a sight to-day I " continued he. " I tremble as I 
think of it. I saw a woman burned to death, — an 
old lady, the mother of the ex-mayor. It was hard, 
hard, hard ! She came into my house after I had 
sent all my folks away except my son James ; and 
she sat down in the back room, just as if she was 
making a call. James told me she was there ; and, 
as the houses were burning all around mine, I told 
James to tend the hose, and keep the roof wet, 
while I went down to see what she was doing there. 
I walked right in where she was, and saw her rock- 
ing back and forth, talking to herself ; but of course 
I could not hear what she said. I told her that 
everybody had left the street, and that my house 
was Hkely to burn with the others, though I in- 
tended to die by it; and I took hold of her, and 
tried to lift her up, but she would not move. I 
saw, as she looked up at me, and refused to take a 
step, that she was insane. The fire, with all its 
horrors, had actually driven her mad. I saw through 
the window that the rear buildings were burning ; 
and I was then almost suffocating with the smoke 
that sifted into the house, although I kept a wet 
silk handkerchief constantly tied over my mouth. 
' Come,' I said ; ' you must go.' But when I tried 



INCIDENTS OF THE FIRE, 53 

to lift her out of the chair, she sank upon the floor. 
I tugged away for a while, but I soon concluded 
that I could not save her and the house too ; and the 
house was a doubtful matter at the best. So I 
called to James, and told him we must get this 
woman away. So we pulled her to the door ; but 
when she saw the buildings all on fire about us, and 
blazing terrifically as far as we could see up and 
down the street, she kicked and screamed, and 
urged us to let her die just there. But we dragged 
her into the street, and abandoned the old home to 
the fire. It was so hot, the wet handkerchief over 
my mouth steamed like a boiling kettle, and my 
hands prickled and smarted, and every breath seemed 
to singe the inside of my throat and lungs. Oh, it 
was so hot ! James took the old lady on his back, 
after we got into the street ; and I kept alongside, to 
shelter him and her from the heat ; and he carried 
her some distance that way. But there seemed to 
be no end to the destruction. As far as we could 
see, nothing but fire, fire, fire. It was of no use. 
James could not hold out. I saw he was tottering, 
and I told him to stop, and let the woman down a 
moment ; then I thought I would take her myself. 
But she resisted so much, and was so determined to 
be burned, that I could not possiblj^ manage her 
alone. James was fast giving way to the heat and 



54 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

smoke : so I says, ' Run, James, run ! Keep close to 
the ground. Get under the smoke, and take breath. 
Keep down Main Street to the bay, and get hito the 
water as quick as you can. Then I did not know 
what to do next. I knelt down, and pleaded with 
her to get up. ' My God ! you and I will both be 
burned here in a moment, if you don't get up and 
come along.' But she was only the more deter- 
mined to remain. So I drew her alongside an over- 
turned boat which lay near by, and threw a piece of 
tarpaulin over her, hoping something might happen 
to save her ; and ran for my life. But it was not 
five minutes before the boat and tarpaulin were seen 
blazing like a tinder ; and she must have burned to 
ashes alive right there." 

But David Tournay could not wait to hear more 
of his old friend's details, and abruptly left the 
speaker in order to scrutinize a company that had 
waded into the water alongside the railway dikes 
skirting the bay ; but his wife and child were not 
there. He hurried up the bank to a vacant lot, 
where stood an abandoned horse-car. Smoke and 
cinders which beat upon it, and the floods which 
volunteer firemen showered upon it, made it an 
uncomfortable but safe place of refuge. Within 
that strange tenement, a poor fainting, exhausted 
woman had been thrust by those who could no 



INCIDENTS OF THE FIRE 55 

longer cany her ; and there, amid the thunders and 
screechings of the conflagration, and the equally 
unearthly screams of women and hallooing of men, 
she srave birth to a child. Of all the terrors and 
pains of that night, it would seem as if such an 
event was the culmination of all woe ; yet both 
mother and child survived. 

Still searching along the shore, wading into the 
water, and running around falling walls, until every 
fibre of his clothing sent out puffs of steam, he 
hurried toward the International Steamship Wharf, 
where he was told a crowd of women had collected. 

Night had come, but the lurid peninsula melting 
with heat illuminated the landscape for a hundred 
miles. Ships far out at sea showed their white sails 
tinged with red. The Penitentiary across the bay, 
the Insane Asylum on Carleton Heights, Reed's 
Castle on the Portland cliffs, the residences along 
Manawaggonish Road, the St. John River for many, 
man}^ miles inland. Partridge Island in the bay, and 
the CaTleton Wards on the western shore, were all 
radiant with light. The glare upon distant lawns, 
windows, and towers, was spectral, red as blood, and 
strangely mingled with flickering, uneasy shadows ; 
but yet so bright that the clearest noonday was 
hardly more searching and distinct. It gave a weird, 
unreal aspect to the forms of men and women as 



56 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

they flitted on the banks, or hastened away from the 
melting shore in boats, scows, and rafts. 

At one point the approach of the fire was so swift 
that the bewildered refugees sought an asylum 
on rafts of lumber, and floated awkwardly out into 
the bay. On one of the most crowded of these, 
where men were holding on and swimming because 
there was no room for more to stand, another child 
was born. Another lumber-float with no male adult 
upon it, but bearing a score of women and children, 
drifted helplessly out to sea, and would soon have 
been lost, had not the red glare of the burning city 
showed them to an approaching schooner. When 
rescued, the conflict between wind and tide had 
whirled them around and around, until all were too 
giddy to stand upon their feet. Upon all such rafts 
as these along the shore, David Tournay bent his 
anxious gaze; but his wife was not there. He leaped 
into boats near the shore, and shouted to others in 
the stream, but no tidings of her did he find ; but 
many a wretched sufferer did he meet, and many 
groans and sighs and prayers did he hear, until, as 
he says, all such exhibitions of terror or grief lost 
their force, and became stale and irksome to him. 

One person stopped him as he ran, to tell how he 
had been so crazed by the sudden approach of the 
calamity, that he unaccountably left all his valuables 



INCIDENTS OF THE FIRE. 57 

and keepsakes in the house, and ran half a mile 
with a handful of cord-wood. Another told him 
how he had piled his best furniture into his cellar, 
and turned on the water, hoping to fill the cellar 
from the aqueduct. One woman had laid up, in 
past years, an old coffee-pot full of gold sovereigns ; 
and, when she left her house that afternoon, she 
poured the gold into the pocket of her dress, and, 
seizing a heavy iron fender, lugged that heavy piece 
of metal out of danger. She found, however, when 
she was so far out of the heat as to recover her self- 
possession, that the weight of the gold had torn 
away her pocket, and her sovereigns were gone. 
All she had saved from a house full of valuable 
articles of furniture and decorations was a useless 
iron fender which the fire might not in the least 
have harmed. Several other ladies he afterwards 
saw who had lost money and jewelry by the tearing 
of their pockets in the same way. 

But it is to be feared that Mr. Tournay did not 
listen very deferentially, or wait long for the com- 
pletion of such tales. His mind was pre-occupied 
with a great, inexpressible sorrow. Yet, when he 
found himself baffled in his search around the shores 
of the bay, and stood hesitating at the extreme end 
of the peninsula where the earthworks and the can- 
non furnished a temporary shelter from the heat of 



58 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

the burning barracks, lie could not avoid giving 
expression to bis wonder, as be gazed up tbe sloping 
hillsides on wbicb tbe city bad stood. 

" By Heaven! it is a splendid sight to see, 
For one who hath no friend, no brother, there." 

Tbe magnificence of tbe spectacle could not escape 
tbe dullest mind. Tbe red clouds banging above, 
tbe columns and sboots of flame below, tbe wide- 
spread glow of tbe still bright embers, tbe strange 
outline of the Germain-street Church in its pic- 
turesque ruins against the illumined smoke beyond ; 
tbe Gothic arches of the Orphan Asylum, resplendent 
in living red ; tbe infinite variety of shape and color 
tbe ruins had everywhere assumed ; the shifting 
banks of smoke, tbe delicate blushes of tbe water on 
either band ; tbe intermingling of blue, carnation, 
crimson, yellow, and white, with kaleidoscopic 
changes in ruin, cloud, and sea, made an impression 
which tbe beholder can never efface. It was not 
lost upon Mr. Tournay. A whole city in embers ! 
Such a bonfire may tbe world never see again ! 
Those streets be knew so well were undistinguisbable 
from the foundations of dwellings. All alike seemed 
burning. Those bouses, those churches, those trees, 
those warehouses, those banks, which bad grown so 
familiar to him, were reduced to dust and crumbling 
heaps of coals. 



INCIDENTS OF THE FIRE. 59 

How was it with himself, — he that was so happy, 
so rich, so successful, so loved, so respected, in the 
morning ? How is it now with him ? Can it be 
that so soon he is wifeless, childless, penniless ? A 
mourner and a beggar ! Yet he was but one of 
many. Sad hours are often seen by all mankind; 
but where are there any sadder than those of that 
long night to the homeless, stricken people of Saint 
John ? 



CHAPTER V. 

IN THE VICINITY OF KING'S SQUAEE. 

The Stationary Vehicle. — The Merchandise in King's Square.— 
Appearance of the Refugees. — The Old Burying-Ground, — The 
Shelterless Ones. — Removal to New Homes. 

XT was late in the night when Mr. Tournay suc- 
-*- ceeded in fighting his way against heat, water, 
and human crowds, back to the foot of Orange 
Street on the shore of Courtney Bay ; but the fire 
was not even there wholly overcome. Here and 
there houses caught and blazed most furiously, which 
had been up to that hour successfully defended. But 
the few buildings which were left at the water's 
edge were so accessible to the steam fire-engines, 
and the force of the aqueduct was so great at these 
low points, that water was to be had in abundance. 
So many people had opened the faucets in their 
houses, and were using their hose so generally when 
the fire approached the principal streets, that the 
supply on the highest portion of the mountainous 
city ran short for the fire-angines. The water would 

60 



IN TEE VICINITY OF KING'S SQUARE. Gl 

scarcely flow while the fire raged the fiercest, so 
great was the quantity taken and wasted by the peo- 
ple. But in the lower and outlying districts there 
was water in abundance, and buildings there could 
be saved; yet, when Tournay passed by Orange 
Street, the heat was still so intense that any house 
fronting the conflagration, though constantly satu- 
rated with water, would dry in one moment, and 
spring into a flame the next. One such house had 
been defended for more than an hour, when the draft 
of water by the fire-engines on Pitt Street lessened 
the supply at this point. Almost instantly the 
structure ignited along the whole front. 

The men, seeing it useless to work longer upon the 
building, drove a horse close to the rear door, and 
backed the wagon upon the sidewalk. When Mr. 
Tournay came up, they had heaped the vehicle with 
household goods, had shouted themselves hoarse at 
the motionless animal, had kicked and clubbed him, 
pulled at his bridle, and pushed at the wheel ; but 
the load did not, would not, move. The beast seemed 
to try his strength, and although the load stood on 
an inclined plane it would not move. Almost beside 
themselves with surprise and vexation, the laborers 
danced about and screamed at that horse ; and at last, 
driven away by the increasing heat, they left 
the poor beast and his load to the destroyer. They 



62 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

felt sure, however, that the horse would soon start 
rather than stand and be burned to death ; and they 
lay by and watched for him. Mr. Tournay was 
hastening to their assistance, when the falling of a 
roof near by them drove them farther away ; and, 
availing himself of his charred blanket which he still 
carried, he ran up to the trembling animal, and took 
hold of the bridle. But the horse would not start, or 
could not do so ; yet the beast seemed to appreciate 
his danger, and shivered like an aspen, looking at 
his load with a frightened and pleading expression, 
and making a plaintive whining noise. The load 
was blazing high, when Mr. Tournay groped along 
to the hindermost wheels, thinking to try one push, 
and if unsuccessful to release the animal from the 
shafts. There, as the smoke drifted for a moment 
another way, he saw the difficulty. For the driver 
in his haste had dropped the chain he used to secure 
the end-board of the wagon, over the crown of an 
iron post or hydrant ; and a dozen horses could not 
break that chain, or extract the post. A sharp pull 
at the wheel, a quick lifting of the chain, and the 
wagon was released. Who knows but the horse 
understood the situation, and was thankful as he was 
led by the bridle into Crown Street, and the fire in 
the load extinguished ? 

From Crown Street, Mr. Tournay proceeded 



TN TEE VICINITY OF KING'S SQUARE. 63 

tlirougli Union Street and Sidney Street to King's 
Square, stopping frequently at some doorway on 
these remaining streets where little companies were 
assembled, and asking for news of his wife and child. 
In the glare of the now dying fires, he recognized 
many old friends, some who spoke cheerfully of their 
prospects, some who appeared wholly disheartened, 
some who had lost all their property, some who had 
no hope of payment although insured in various 
small companies, some who were badly burned, 
some whose friends had been killed or badly 
maimed ; but not one of them had seen Mr. Tour- 
nay's companion or daughter. 

No one in the city slept that night ; all came into 
that section of the city which had been saved from 
the destroyer, and in subdued whispers and half- 
concealed undertones talked of the calamity, and 
magnified its horrors by rumors of many terrible 
things which could not possibly happen. King's 
Square presented a motley scene indeed, — half 
human beings, half merchandise, interminably en- 
tangled, so that any man whom the police allowed 
to enter was in a continuous state of doubt whether 
the bundles and heaps about him were animate or 
inanimate. This had been the general depository 
of all the property saved from the fire ; and stacks 
of merchandise, of enormous value, at one time cov- 



64 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

erecl its walks and lawns. But at the first opportu- 
nity furnished by some neighbor who opened his 
house, store, manufactory, or stable, to their recep- 
tion, the goods were as hastily removed as they had 
been delivered ; so that teams and porters were com- 
ing and going in endless procession, while the fear 
of thieves kept a strong force of volunteer watch- 
men about each owner's stock. Here were men 
searching for lost articles, the location of which they 
had forg^otten. Here were women and children with 
quilts and shawls over their heads, seated on a heap 
of household property, so hastily thrown together, 
guarding their only remaining possessions. Here 
were a number of trunks, whose .Gpners believed 
them destroyed, and on one of which two little girls 
sat crying for their father and mother; while all 
about the greensward men, women, and children 
were sitting, lying, or standing, not knowing where 
to go, or waiting the return of some messenger sent 
out for succor. Over the whole space were scattered 
pieces of almost every thing merchantable. All 
trades, professions, and occupations had contributed 
toward the motley collection; and in the hasty re- 
moval with such uncertain light (the lamps being 
extinguished) specimens of almost every deposit 
were left behind to clog the feet of those who fol- 
lowed. 



IN THE VICINITY OF KING'S SQUARE. 65 

But the saddest scenes of all were witnessed in 
the old burying-ground situated on the other side 
of Sidney Street and nearly opposite King's Square. 
To the numbers who crowded that dismal locality, 
especially so in the dead of night, thousands of 
homes had contributed. 

No real home needs velvets, laces, or diamonds, to 
make it dear. The forlorn one who had parted 
with but a few dollars' worth of household articles 
was as deeply pained at the loss of that as he who 
counted the value' of his mansion's trimmings by 
thousands of pounds. The husband whose beard 
was rough, whose hands were calloused, and whose 
speech was untutored and coarse, had the same 
value in the eyes of his wife as that which the wife 
of the rich and cultured man placed upon his life. 
The child of the fisherman or lumberman was as 
dear to his parents, and, under the thorough free- 
school system of such a city, was as sure of arriving 
at distinction, as the son of the wealthiest official. 
Here they were huddled among the graves, broken 
scattered families ; a son, a daughter, a sister, a 
brother, a parent, in the list of missing. Sad field 
of sorrow ! the very sward was wet with tears. It 
is certain that never before since the cemetery was 
consecrated had such things been witnessed there ; 
and it is doubtful if the old Loyalists themselves, 



eQ GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

whose imposing tombs tell of so mucli adventure and 
privation, ever witnessed such keen and heart-break- 
ing anxiety as that possessing the minds of those 
who that night trod thoughtlessly upon the Loyal- 
ists' graves, nearly all waiting for some dear one who 
might never, never come. 

"Katie! Katie! Is that you?" asked Mr. Tour- 
nay, as he entered the cemetery, and thought he saw 
the form of his kitchen-maid passing under the 
trees. 

" O Lord ! have you come alive, — sure ? " almost 
screamed Katie, as she recognized the voice, and 
rushed toward him with a bound. " Where is mis- 
tress? where is Ethel?" added she, in the same 
breath. 

" O Katie ! haven't you seen them ? Where did 
you leave them? Did they escape?" frantically 
pleaded the husband and father, as he seized the 
shoulder of the girl with a grasp that made her 
cringe. 

" I don't know, sir," said she. " I heard the fire 
a-coming, and I ran out the front way ; and I didn't 
see them at all." 

He turned from her as if he had been stung by a 
serpent. It was Katie, then, who opened the front- 
door of his dwelling, and not his wife, as he had so 
much hoped. Hope gave place to dismay ; and the 



IN THE VICINITY OF KING'S SQUARE. 67 

exhausted, heart-broken man dropped upon the grass, 
and groaned. 

Strangers came, and tried to comfort him. They 
told him that many had escaped from Queen's Square ; 
that his wife might be off in a boat or schooner. 
But he would not be comforted. At last there 
came by him a gentleman who had known Mr. 
Tournay, and had been a visitor at his house. As 
he heard Mr. Tournay wailing so piteously, he 
stopped to ascertain the cause. Kneeling by the 
mourner, and failing to recognize him because of his 
torn coat, singed whiskers, sooty face, and the uncer- 
tain light, he bade him look on the brighter side. 
Mr. Tournay, however, recognized the voice, and, 
discovering that his friend did not know him, said, 
" Manseur, don't you remember me since yesterday ? 
Oh, my wife and child ! oh, my poor child ! " 

" Heavens, David ! I can hardly believe your own 
lips. Are you really alive ? Why, we heard you 
were burned in the store after the others had left. 
And your wife, too, thinks you are dead." 

" My wife ! " shouted David. " Have you seen 
her ? and Ethel ? Are they living ? If you say no, 
I certainl}^ shall die." 

" Come with me, and I will show them to you," 
said his friend, leading the way briskly around the 
tombs to the other side of the cemetery. David 



68 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

Tournay followed in silence. He could not speak. 
The re-action was so great that he gasped for breath, 
and great tears rolled down his cheeks. Under a 
small shade-tree in one corner of the city of the 
dead, in the shadow of the Court House, which 
stood between them and the ruins, was a blanket 
spread upon the grass ; and upon it lay the sick and 
almost dying girl. Kneeling beside her, and holding 
,one of her hands, with transparent face and closed 
eyes, was her grief-stricken mother. 

" Mrs. Tournay," said the guide in *a half-whis- 
per, " don't disturb your daughter, but I have brought 
you your husband.'''' 

" O David, David ! " was all that was said. 

Soon they took up the feeble girl, and carried her 
tenderly to a hospitable though humble home, where 
they laid her on a bed soft as her own, and called the 
nearest physician. Long and anxiously they awaited 
his coming ; and when he had made his visit, and 
left his prescription, they were as uneasy and uncer- 
tain about the invalid as before. He said it might 
be all right, but s.he was exhausted : she might 
rally, and " the best thing to do was to hope for the 
best." 

As the hours passed, and morning came, little 
Ethel slept ; and the father and mother watched by 
her bedside, telling each other in whispers theii 



IN THE VICINITY OF KING'S SQUARE. 69 

adventures in the fire. She told him how Ethel had 
awakened her to see the fire along the window- 
casings ; how in terror she seized the coverlet, and, 
wrapping the girl in it, carried her in great fright to 
the front stairs, where she saw so much smoke enter- 
ing by the open door that she retreated into the front 
chamber. She told how she screamed for help from 
the window; how at last she desperately dropped 
from the window into the yard, with Ethel held by 
one hand ; and how near she came to losing her hold 
upon her precious charge. She told how she ran to 
the house of a friend; how they were driven from 
that by the flames ; how she sought and found an- 
other place of refuge, from which she was again 
driven ; and how she determined to go to no more 
dwellings, but seek the burial-ground, where she 
was told the smoke and fire could not come. But 
a short time before he came to her, they had told her 
that he was dead. 

They talked it over and over again, enumerated 
their losses, sighed when they thought of their 
home, wept when they talked of their all swept 
thus suddenly away; but gathered hope as they 
planned for years of work instead of the rest they 
had anticipated, and realized of how little conse- 
quence, after all, property was to them who had 
each other — and Ethel. 



70 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

Alas, poor little Ethel ! The agitation, the expos- 
ure, the heat, the smoke, all combined to overcome 
her feeble strength, and their effects were fatal. 
Twelve hours later, a little company of friends 
gathered at her bedside, where her parents held her 
pale hands as she calmly, peacefully, after twelve 
years of life, left this world of terror, for that realm 
of beauty where terrors of earthquake, tempest, and 
fire never come. 

. She was none the less a victim of the fire, because 
her name appears not in the list of the killed. How 
many, many others there were who suffered and 
died in the same way, the world will never know. 



CHAPTER VL 

THE PEOPLE BEFOUE THE FIEE. 

The Metropolis of New Brunswick. — Character of its Founders. — 
Culture of the People. — Public and Private Enterprise. — Pub- 
lic Buildings, Commerce, Manufacturing, &c. 

XT is a most difficult task to write a history of 
-^ such an event as this, with that conciseness of 
detail which would please the people living in the 
locality of the disaster, and at the same time make 
a volume of sufficient interest to attract and hold 
those readers who are unacquainted with the city, 
and take no interest in local names and places ; but 
to inform by facts and please by completeness both 
of those classes, will be the writer's earnest endeav- 
or. Yet, as we write mainly for readers who are 
strangers to St. John, expecting to find our audience 
more in the United States, England, and Canada, 
than in New Brunswick, and as a gifted writer who 
is a resident of St. John ^ will produce a most valua- 
ble record of the great disaster, as we sincerely hope 

1 Mr. George Stuart. 

71 



72 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

and believe, we try to look upon the people and the 
calamity as an impartial stranger would view them, 
and write more especially of those things which a 
foreigner might wish to see and understand. 

Although the city of St. John was not the legisla- 
tive capital of New Brunswick, it was socially, intel- 
lectually, and commercially, the metropolis of the 
Province. Its fifty thousand people were unusually 
cultivated and enterprising. The rocky peninsula 
was selected as a site for a city by those expatri- 
ated .loyalists from Massachusetts, New York, and 
Virginia, who were known at the time of their exile 
in 1783 as the most polished and learned men on 
the continent. They sought these huge, uninviting 
cliffs as the Pilgrim Fathers sought the ledges of 
Pl^^mouth Rock. 

*' Ay, call it holy ground, — 

The soil where first they trod : 
They have left unstained what there they found, — 
Freedom to worship God." 

They were men who loved old England, and had no 
faith in the success of the dangerous experiment 
being tried by the colonies ; men who revered old 
institutions, and despised iconoclasts ; men to whom 
Chaucer, Raleigh, Milton, Taylor, Lamb, Goldsmith, 
and Shakespeare were patterns of literary excel- 



THE PEOPLE BEFORE THE FIRE. 73 

lence, and to whom William Pitt was a model states- 
man. They clung with ardent affection to the land 
and the nation which had produced such characters, 
and cared not to exchange it for a commonwealth 
which had no name, no history, no literature, and no 
art. They were sincere enough to fight for their 
convictions : thence the short-sighted people of the 
• United States sent them away, and in so doing made 
the great, liberal, tolerant, generous nation they 
founded often blush with shame. 

Such men as these, including in their number 
distinguished lawyers, orators, statesmen, soldiers, 
professors, merchants, and hardy tradesmen, were 
they who founded the city. Such as they have been 
their descendants. As like produces like, as men of 
similar tastes seek the society of each other, so the 
children of the founders, and the companions they 
drew to them from the mother country, were men 
and women who respected genuine worth, encour- 
aged education, and assisted the industrious. 

Such were the people to whom this great horror 
came. Public schools they had, and private acade- 
mies. Libraries they had, both public and private, 
and were eminently a reading people. Churches 
and an imposing cathedral they had, being no less a 
church-going. God-fearing people, than a studious and 
industrious one. Banks they had, whose paper was 



74 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

current in the whole circuit of the world, and in the 
vaults of which when the visitation came were over 
fifty millions of dollars. Wharves they had, to which 
every clime and land had been tributary, and from 
which their own ships departed for almost every 
known port. Manufactories they had, competing 
with the imports from Europe. Hospitals they had, 
for the disabled in body and the deranged in mind ; 
asylums for the orphan, the widow, the pauper; 
halls for public assemblies ; theatres for dramas, 
lectures, and balls ; markets with the products of 
every climate ; hotels that were commodious ; news- 
papers published by enterprising, conscientious men ; 
and all the conveniences of light, water, sewerage, 
and communication, which are the pride of modern 
civilization. Connected with all these were the 
plainest indications of economy ; born, no doubt, from 
the frugal, unostentatious habits of the people, com- 
bined with the enormous expense they necessarily 
incurred in cutting down the cliffs and hewing their 
streets and sewers through solid rock. They were 
a happy people. They were not possessed of enor- 
mous wealth ; but they had enough, and they knew 
it. They were active, yet contented. 

Why, in the providence of God, such a desolation 
should come to such a people, sweeping away in 
its unsparing malignity Bible depositories, religious 



THE PEOPLE BEFORE THE FIRE. 75 

schools, and beautiful churches, on which the pros- 
perity of the faith seemed to depend, is one of those 
questions which everj one asks, but no one can 
answer. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE CITY BEFORE THE FIRE. 

The Situation of the City. — The Dwellings. —The Public Build- 
ings. — The Churches. — The Environs. — The Scenery. — The 
Harbor. — The Business Enterprises. 

rr^HE city of St. John was not a beautiful city 
to the eye of the merely sesthetical observer, 
although there were squares, parks, and shaded 
streets, to relieve the monotony of the landscape. 
Situated upon a peninsula which projected far into 
the bay, and confined to that promontory by more 
barren and almost inaccessible cliffs upon the land- 
ward side, the people availed themselves of every 
attainable spot within the city limits to build their 
houses, stores, and shops. This gave to the streets 
a somewhat crowded appearance, more especially 
outside of the fire precinct, where the buildings 
were largely constructed from wood, and without 
that unity of design which would have resulted 
from a greater desire for architectural effect, and 
less attention to the necessities and expenses of the 

76 



THE CITY BEFORE THE FIRE. 77 

constructors. But within the fire -limits, where the 
owners of land were confined to the use of non-com- 
bustible material in the construction of their build- 
ings, the streets had a neat and thrifty appearance. 
Some of the warehouses were imposing and com- 
modious buildings, arranged and ornamented after 
the drawings of the most skilful architects on the 
continent. 

The churches were usually small, but the number 
of them was very large in proportion to the number 
of inhabitants. There were several exceptions, how- 
ever, to the general rule as to the diminutiveness of 
church structures, including St. Stephen's Church 
(Church of Scotland), Trinity Church (Church of 
England), and the Germain-street Baptist edifice ; 
while the Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate 
Conception, on Waterloo Street, still standing, is a 
grand edifice two hundred feet long and one 
hundred and ten feet wide, and cost one hundred 
thousand dollars. There were various public school 
buildings, a spacious skating-rink, a Mechanics' 
Institute with a hall that seats twelve hundred 
auditors, a fine Court House, Custom House, a 
gymnasium and a lyceum ; but so scattered were 
these, that they could not be counted as adding 
much to the beauty or symmetry of the city. 

Yet, set as it was within a circle of attractive 



78 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

suburbs, with a river on one side, which rises and 
falls, surges and roars, between precipitous cliffs in 
a most romantic manner ; with a bay that shimmered 
and sparkled between gently receding shores of for- 
est and lawn, and cheerfully bubbled and gurgled 
about the rocky island which bears the light-house 
tower ; with views of summer retreats, hedged fields, 
and cultivated hills, to the eastward, beyond which 
the eyesight was lost in mountainous forests of 
evergreen; and with rocks that rose in towers to 
the northward, upon which were suburban parks, 
mansions, and, beyond them, plateaus of field and 
grove stretching away to the wide raft and schooner 
dotted river, — the city was, after all, one of the 
most inviting and exhilarating of resorts for those 
who admired the beauties of nature in their most 
varied forms. 

Looking upon the city with a view to its commer- 
cial advantages, visitors found commodious wharves, 
ample anchorage, and a thicket of masts, with all 
the activity in the streets and wholesale warehouses 
which accompany such enterprises.. In the ship 
yards there were vessels on the stocks ; in the tribu 
tary waters there were countless rafts of manufactured 
lumber, and indications everywhere of active, per- 
manent business growth. 

Manufactories of edge-tools, nails, boots and shoes, 



THE CITY BEFORE THE FIRE. 79 

brick, carriages, furniture, iron-work, leather, lum- 
ber, woollen and cotton clotlis, brushes, watches, 
books, spices, pianos, cigars, rope, and many other 
articles, were in a flourishing condition. 

Upon such a city as this did the dread destroyer 
come. What a commentary upon the instability 
and uncertainty of man's most permanent institu- 
tions ! and what an admonition its history contains, 
enjoining us to be profoundly thankful that we who 
write and we who read have been spared, while a 
people our equal in every thing that is deserving and 
noble have been so greatly afflicted ! 



CHAPTER VIII. 

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF SAINT JOHN. 

From 1604: to 1775. —Discovery by the French. — Fort La Tour. — 
Contest between La Tour and Charnisay. — Grant of Lands. — In- 
dian Wars. — Pirates. — Expeditious from Boston. — War be- 
tween the English and French. — Naval Engagements. — Capture 
of Fort La Tour. — Erection of a Blockhouse. 

"TT will give the interested inquirer a more com- 
-^ prehensive idea of the extent of the destruction, 
to insert here a condensed sketch of the history 
of Saint John and its environs. Such a chronicle 
must, however, be greatly condensed to admit of its 
publication in a book of this character ; and, should 
the student desire to follow the matter into its ex- 
citing and romantic details, he cannot find a volume 
so complete, or peruse a story more delightfully told, 
than " The History of Acadia," by James Hannay, 
soon to be published. To the author of that interest- 
ing work we are indebted for the facts which follow, 
together with much useful information on other 
subjects, so kindly given during our search among 

80 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF SAINT JOHN, 81 

the ruins of his city and around the ashes of his 
home. 

As early as the 24th of June, 1604, a little French 
ship sailed into the bay now known as the harbor of 
Saint John. She was a paltry craft, measured by 
modern standards, smaller than many of the coasting 
schooners of the present day ; but she carried the 
germ of an empire, for Champlain, De Monts, and 
Poutrincourt, the founders of New France, were on 
her deck. Champlain's chart of the harbor shows 
how carefully he scanned his new discovery, and 
how little the great natural features of the place 
have changed in 271 years. The rugged hills about 
Saint John were then covered with pines and cedars ; 
and on Navy Island, which was then separated from 
the mainland on the Carleton side by a much narrower 
channel than now, was a collection of Indian wig- 
wams surrounded by a high palisade. 

The savages who then dwelt at the mouth of the 
Saint John were Micmacs, called by the French Souri- 
quois, the Malicetes or Etchemins being then confined 
to the upper parts of the river, which they called 
WollastooJc^ or Long River. By the Micmacs it was 
called Wigoudy^ or the Great Highway. Champlain 
regarded himself as its first discoverer, and in honor 
of the day, that of Saint John the Baptist, gave the 
river the name which it has ever since retained. 



82 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

But, though bent on founding a colony, he did not 
linger at the mouth of the Saint John, but spread his 
sails for a longer flight, and turned the prow of his 
vessel toward the fatal Island of St. Croix. Seven 
years after this, in 1611, Father Edmond Masse, a 
Jesuit father, was found living at the mouth of the 
Saint John, and, in the midst of all the discomforts 
incidental to a life amongst the savages, endeavoring 
to learn their language. But his residence there 
was short, and then the locality is without a history 
for nearly twenty years. 

In 1630 Charles Amador de la Tour, a French 
nobleman, who was lieutenant-general to the king on 
the coast of Acadia, as that country was then called, 
commenced to build a fort at the mouth of the Saint 
John. The spot selected was the neck of land on the 
Carleton side, opposite to Navy Island ; and Fort La 
Tour, as finally completed, was a palisaded fort of 
four bastions two hundred feet square, and mounting 
twenty-four guns. La Tour lived here for many years, 
and generally had two or three hundred servants 
and retainers about him. He traded largely with 
the Indians, as many as three thousand moose-skins 
being brought in from the Upper St. John and its 
tributaries in a single year, besides large numbers of 
beaver. La Tour had an enormous territory, and held 
a portion of his land by a double title, from the com- 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF SAINT JOHN. 83 

pany of New France, and from Sir William Alexan- 
der, the grantee of James I. of England. In 1640 
violent differences arose between La Tour and d'Aul- 
nay Charnisay, who had a fort at Port Royal, 
now Annapolis, and was also a grantee of the com- 
pany of New France. He succeeded in having 
La Tour's commission from the king revoked, and an 
order issued for his arrest, under the hand of Louis 
XIII., which La Tour treated with contempt. In 
1643 Charnisay attacked La Tour's fort with five ships 
and five hundred men ; but the latter obtained aid 
from Boston, and beat him off with loss. Early in 
1645, in La Tour's absence, Charnisay made another 
attack ; but La Tour's heroic wife encouraged the 
garrison, and his ship was compelled to retire in a 
sinking condition. Charnisay, however, returned 
with a stronger force, and attacked Fort La Tour from 
the land side. For three days Lady La Tour, with 
her weak garrison, held him at bay ; but on the 
fourth, which was Easter Sunday, 16th April, 1645, 
while the garrison were- at prayers, a treacherous 
Swiss sentinel opened the gate to the invaders. 
Lady La Tour, with unfaltering courage, rallied her 
little band of fifty men, and made head against the 
enemy ; but finally, to save further bloodshed, made 
terms of capitulation. These terms Charnisay com- 
pletely disregarded, and, with incredible barbarity, 
hanged all the garrison except the brave wonaan. 



84 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

This accumulation of disasters so preyed on the 
spirits of Lady La Tour, that in a few days she died, 
leaving an infant child which was sent to France. 
Charnisay continued to retain Fort La Tour for some 
years, its legitimate owner having, in the mean time, 
retired to Quebec. Charnisay in 1650 was drowned 
in the Annapolis River ; and in the following year 
La Tour had his commission restored to him by the 
French king, and recovered possession of his fort. 
In 1653 he married Charnisay's widow, and was 
living at St. John in a quiet domestic way, when in 
1654 an English fleet which had been sent out 
by Oliver Cromwell appeared before Fort La Tour, 
which, being in a defenceless state, was obliged to 
capitulate ; and Acadia passed into the hands of the 
English. La Tour went to England, and succeeded, 
in conjunction with Thomas Temple and William 
Crowne, in obtaining from Cromwell a grant of the 
whole of Acadia. La Tour subsequently sold out to 
Temple, who strengthened and improved Fort La 
Tour, and built a new fort at Jemseg, where he 
carried on a considerable trade with the Indians. 
La Tour died in 1666 at St. John ; and in the 
following year the treaty of Breda was made between 
Louis XIV. and Charles II., by which Acadia was 
to be surrendered to France. 

Owing to difficulties raised by Temple as to the 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF SAINT JOHN. 85 

limits of Acadia, the surrender was not effected 
until 1670. It then became a French province with 
royal governors. The first governor under this new 
order of things was the Chevalier de Grandfontaine, 
who resided most of the time on the River St. John. 
He strengthened and improved Fort La Tour, bring- 
ing cannon to it from the fort at Jemseg, which for 
the time seems to have been abandoned. There 
were at that time in all Acadia less than four hun- 
dred souls, as appears by an actual census of the 
inhabitants taken in the year 1671. Only two forts 
were then maintained in Acadia, — that at Pentagoet, 
where the Chevalier Grandfontaine resided, and Fort 
La Tour, where his lieutenant M. de Marson held 
command. 

In 1673 Grandfontaine returned to France, and 
was succeeded in command in Acadia by M. de 
Chambly. About this time, for some reason which 
is not given, but probably from its greater proximity 
and consequent advantages for communication with 
the Indians, De Marson appears to have transferred 
his headquarters to Fort Jemseg, for in 1674 he was 
there surprised by a Flemish pirate commanded by 
an English adventurer, and compelled to surrender. 
De Marson was carried off a prisoner, but soon 
appears to have been set at liberty ; and he continued 
to hold command on the River St. John for some 



86 . GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

years. In 1676 lie received a grant from the French 
crown of a seigniory called Nachouac; and in the 
same year he also received a grant of the fort or 
house of Jemseg. 

In 1682 M. de la Yalli^re was in command in Aca- 
dia, under -an appointment made by Count Frontenac, 
the governor of Canada. About this time the king 
of France granted to the Sieur Bergier of Rochelle, 
Gautier, Boucher, and De Montes, " the lands which 
they shall find suitable along the coast of Acadia and 
the River Saint John," for the establishment of the 
shore fishery. Bergier came to Acadia, and proceeded 
to organize fishing-establishments on its coasts ; but 
he found his operations constantly impeded by the 
English, who had been fishing on these coasts' for 
years, and were not to be restrained. La Yalliere the 
commandant, who resided at Saint John, w^as openly 
accused of being in league with these enemies of his 
country ; and it was stated in memorials written to 
the French Government of that day, that he had 
licensed the English vessels to fish on the coast of 
Acadia for money payment. Whether these accusa- 
tions were true or not, it is certain that the differ- 
ences between Bergier and La Valliere continued to 
increase in violence ; and finally the latter, with 
something like piratical violence, seized several of 
Bergier's vessels, and confiscated their cargoes of fish 
and hides. 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF SAINT JOHN. 87 

In 1684 La Valliere was removed from the govern- 
orship of Acadia, and succeeded by M. Perrot, who 
was in his turn succeeded in 1687 by M. de Meu- 
neraL Prior to this, however, a new set of adventur- 
ers from Quebec had made their appearance on the 
Saint John River. These were four brothers named 
d' Amours, sons of Matthieu d' Amours, one of the 
councillors of state at Quebec. Their names were 
Louis, Pene, Matthieu, and Bernard ; and, notwith- 
standing the rank and official position of their father, 
at an early age they took to the woods as coureurs 
de hois^ or outlaws of the bush, and at one time 
were actually arrested by the governor of Canada 
for following this employment. They obtained 
grants of land on the River Saint John in 1684 ; and 
two of them, Matthieu and Louis, married to two 
sisters named Guyon, formed permanent establish- 
ments on the Saint John. Matthieu resided on the 
east bank of the river, opposite to the mouth of the 
Oromocto ; and Louis had his habitation at the mouth 
of the Jemseg. All the brothers traded extensively 
with the Indians of the Saint John River ; of whom 
it is now time to speak, as about this time they became 
a power in the eastern parts of America. These 
Indians are part of the great Algonquin famil}^, and 
were variously designated Etchemins or Malicites, 
names the meanings of which are now lost ; they 



88 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

also called themselves, in common with some of the 
Indians of Maine, by the general name of Wabanaki, 
or men of the east. The Indian wars in which the 
Malicites took part commenced in 1689 ; and for the 
next thirty or forty years there was a state of hos- 
tility between the border settlers of Maine and New 
Plampshire, and the New Brunswick Indians. Year 
after year the work of slaughter went on ; and some 
of the most thrilling tales of suffering and of Indian 
adventure belong to this period, and relate to con- 
flicts with the Malicites of Acadia. 

An event happened shortly after the commence- 
ment of this Indian war, which gave greater strength 
and consistency to their efforts. For some years 
prior to 1690, Port Royal, now Annapolis, had been 
the seat of government of Acadia ; but in that year 
it was captured by Sir William Phips, and its govern- 
or and garrison taken as prisoners to Boston. When 
Yillebon, who came to take Meuneral's place as gov- 
ernor, arrived at Port Royal, he found it in a ruinous 
condition ; and he at once decided to remove the seat 
of government to the River Saint John, to the fort at 
Jemseg, which had been formerly occupied by Grand- 
fontaine. 

At this period pirates were abundant on the coast 
of Acadia ; and one of these corsairs landed at Port 
Royal, and committed many depredations. They 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF SAINT JOHN. 89 

then crossed to Saint John, and captured the vessel 
in which Villebon had come from France, which was 
lying in this harbor, Villebon being then up the 
River Saint John. It was probably its liability to 
insult and attack by piratical vessels, that caused 
Villebon to occupy the fort at Jemseg, rather than 
Fort Latour at this period. Jemseg, however, proved 
in every way unsuitable for a garrison, having origi- 
nally been intended merely for a trading-post ; and 
Villebon shortl}^ left it, and proceeded to build a pal- 
isaded fort at the mouth of the Nashwaak, a tributary 
of the Saint John, which enters it opposite to the 
city of Fredericton. The rise of this new fortification 
was deemed by the English colonists an insult and a 
menace; for in 1692 Sir William Phips sent a ship 
of forty-eight guns and two brigantines, with eighty 
soldiers on board, to capture it. Villebon, however, 
was on the alert, and, without waiting to be 
attacked, sent a detachment to the mouth of the 
river to watch the enemy ; who were so much discon- 
certed at the appearance of the French on the alert, 
that they returned without attempting to make any 
attack. 

At this period several French war-vessels were 
kept cruising on the coast of Acadia, partly to keep 
the pirates who infested its shores at a respectable 
distance, and partly to attack and destroy the fishing 



90 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

and trading vessels of the English colonists. The har- 
bor of Saint John became a sort of depot for these 
captured vessels and their cargoes. A privateer 
named Baptiste was particularly active in depreda- 
tions upon English commerce at this period. At the 
same time Fort Nashwaak on the Saint John was the 
focus of these intrigues against the peace and pros- 
perity of the settlements of New England, which 
kept its border towns in a state of warfare, and often 
of ruin, for so many years. It was from Fort Nash- 
waak, that expedition after expedition went forth, 
composed of bloodthirsty and treacherous savages, 
and headed generally by Frenchmen, to murder and 
destroy in the settlements of New Hampshire and 
Maine. Hundreds of English colonists were slain in 
these bloody encounters, and many captured ; and 
the fort at Saint John finally came to be looked upon 
as the cause of all these disasters, so that a very nat- 
ural desire rose in the hearts of the people of New 
England to destroy it. This desire was hardened into 
a firm resolve by an event which happened in August, 
1696, — the capture of Fort William Henry at Pem- 
aquid, by a force of French and Indians from Saint 
John. This fort was almost new, built of stone, and 
had cost the Province of Massachusetts more than 
twenty thousand pounds. Its capture was too gross 
an insult to be borne. It was determined by the 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF SAINT JOHN. 91 

people of Boston, that the French should be driven 
from the River Saint John. That no incentive might 
be wanting to stimulate the pride and zeal of the 
men of Massachusetts, two ships of the French expe- 
dition, the " Profond " and " Envieu," had been 
attacked off the harbor of St. John by three English 
vessels, the " Sorling," "Newport," and '' Province " 
galley. ' One of the latter, the " Newport," was cap- 
tured, and the others put to flight. The " Newport " 
was carried into Saint John. 

The English expedition to capture Fort Nashwaak 
was placed under the command of Benjamin Church, 
who had won distinction in King Philip's wars. 
Between four hundred and five hundred men were 
put under his command, and he sailed from Piscata- 
qua late in August ; his force, which included some 
Indians, being disposed in several small vessels and 
boats. Church, instead of steering straight for Fort 
Nashwaak, which he might have surprised, went up 
the bay to Chignecto, which he proceeded to plun- 
der and destroy. He remained there nine days, which 
he employed in killing the cattle, burning down the 
houses, and destroying the crops, of the unfortunate 
Acadians. Even the chapel was not spared by this 
licentious soldier, who seems to have had no stom- 
ach for war, so long as booty was to be obtained. 
The accounts given of his scandalous treatment of 



92 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

these poor people would be incredible, had he not 
taken the pains to write and publish them himself in 
a book. 

Church and his force returned to Saint John, 
where his chief exploit was frightening some work- 
men who were rebuilding the fort at the mouth of 
the river, and capturing twelve cannon that the 
French had buried in the beach. He then sailed for 
Passamaquoddy, where he was met by Col. Hathorne, 
who had brought a re-enforcement of three vessels ; 
and, taldng command of the expedition, bade Church 
return to aid him in an attack on Fort Nashwaak. 
Villebon, who had a guard at the mouth of the Saint 
John, was early informed of Hathorne's approach, 
and strengthened his garrison by calling in the 
Frenchmen who lived lower down the river. Father 
Simon, the Recollet missionary, who dwelt at Auc- 
paque, also came into the fort at the head of thirty- 
six Indian warriors ; and when the English made 
their appearance before the fort, on the morning of 
the 18th of October, the French commander was 
fully prepared to receive them. After a cannonade 
which lasted two days, the siege was abandoned in a 
precipitate manner ; and the English force withdrew 
down the river, having lost a considerable number 
of men. The cause of this action is said to have 
been the want of tents to shelter the troops, who 
suffered greatly from the cold. 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF SAINT JOHN. 93 

Fort Nashwaak was strengthened during the 
winter, in anticipation of another attack in the 
spring ; but Villebon had resolved to remove his 
headquarters to Fort Latour at the mouth of the 
river. In 1697 he organized an Indian expedition 
against the English settlements of Maine, and kept 
his men busy rebuilding the fort at the mouth of the 
Saint John. The work of rebuilding went on all 
that year ; and in 1698 Nashwaak was abandoned, 
and Villebon removed with his garrison to the fort 
at the mouth of the Saint John. For the next two 
years matters in Acadia were of an uneventful char- 
acter. There was little to cause excitement among 
its inhabitants, except the occasional appearance of 
a pirate on its shores. * 

In July, 1700, Villebon died, and was buried at 
Saint John ; and Villieu took the command of Acadia 
until June, 1701, when Brouillan, who had been 
sent out as governor, arrived. This commander 
resolved to abandon the fort and establishment at 
Saint John, on which so much money and labor had 
been expended ; ah act of folly to which the subse- 
quent loss of Acadia by the French may be largely 
attributed. He caused the fortifications to be razed, 
demolished the houses, and carried away the guns 
and every thing else of a portable character, to Port 
Royal. Saint John was left as deserted and desolate 



94 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

as it had been nearly a century before, previous to 
the arrival of Champlain. A deep silence fell upon 
the place, which was unbroken for thirty years. 
The Indian might wander among the ruins of a fort 
which had been abandoned to his care, or left to be 
converted into a hiding-place for the wild beasts of 
the forest, and wonder at the folly of the white men 
who had forsaken the finest river in all Acadia for 
the hunter, the woodsman, the fisherman, or the 
farmer. 

The persistent attempts which were made by the 
French to build a great town at Port Royal, and the 
steady neglect of the advantages of Saint John, 
where nature had obviously intended that a great city 
should be erected, are things which may well excite 
our surprise ; for, during the whole French occupa- 
tion of Acadia, Saint John never progressed a single 
step towards its present condition. They built forti- 
fications here indeed, and filled them with soldiers ; 
but there were no private settlers at the mouth of 
the river, and no attempt to establish any trade at 
Saint John was ever seriously made in their time ; 
the only article exported during the French period, 
besides the skins of wild animals, if we except pines 
for masts for the French navy, being limestone, 
which at an early date was taken from Saint John 
in considerable quantities to Port Royal. All the 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF SAINT JOHN. 95 

energies of the French people, for more than a cen- 
tury, were directed to the building-up of settlements 
at Port Roj'al, Minas, and Chignecto. The very 
vastness and solitary grandeur of the Saint John 
seem to have frightened private settlers away ; and 
the Government of France seems to have given such 
persons no encouragement to settle here. 

In 1710 a material change was caused in the 
aspect of Acadian affairs by the fall of Port Royal, 
which was captured by an English expedition under 
Gen. Nicholson. Its name was changed to Annapolis, 
in honor of the reigning queen ; and it continued for 
a long time to be the seat of government of the 
English colony of Nova Scotia. Although the 
French made several attempts to recapture their 
beloved Port Royal, they always failed. 

Although by the treaty of Utrecht Acadia was 
ceded to the English crown, the French contended 
that the name only covered the peninsula of Nova 
Scotia, and therefore that the Saint John still be- 
lono-ed to them. This claim was made officiallv in a 
letter written in 1718 by the Marquis de Vaudreuil, 
the governor of Canada, to John Doucett, lieutenant- 
governor of Annapolis Royal. The French governor 
also encouraged the inhabitants of Acadia to settle 
on the Saint John River ; but none appear to have 
done so at this time. In 1732, however, a small 



96 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

French colony from Chignecto settled on the River 
Saint John, and speedily made themselves obnoxious 
to the commander of Port Royal, by their refusal to 
recognize his authority. These people in 1736 num- 
bered seventy-eight souls, besides the missionary 
priest, Jean Pierre Danilo. These simple Acadians 
were not the sort of people to make any great figure 
in history ; and accordingly they have left little 
record of their existence, except a few entries in 
regard to them in the minutes of council and letter 
books of the Province of Nova Scotia. The iiumber 
of French Acadians on the St. John River gradually 
continued to increase ; and their settlements gradually 
grew to be a refuge for the disaffected from other 
parts of the Province. The Malicite Indians of the 
Saint John were always on good terms with the 
French, and, while the latter remained in the country, 
were always openly or secretly hostile to the English. 
In 1749, after the close of the war between France 
and England, which arose out of the violation of 
the Pragmatic Sanction by Frederick the Great, Col. 
John Gorham was sent to the River Saint John with 
a force, to exact submission from the French inhabit- 
ants there. His troops on landing were fired on by 
the Indians, or by the French ; it is not very clear 
which. Two Indians who do not appear to have 
been concerned in the attack on the English, but 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF SAINT JOHN. 97 

who rather seem to have strayed into their camp, 
were seized by Gorham, and detained as hostages. 
This act provoked a correspondence between the 
Count Galissionhere, the governor of Canada, and 
the British authorities, in which the old question 
with regard to the ownership of the Saint John 
River, which had been in abeyance for many years, 
was revived. The result of these conflicting claims 
was a determination on the part of the French gov- 
ernor to occupy the territory in dispute with an 
armed force. 

Accordingly in the summer of 1749 a French offi- 
cer named Boisherbert was sent down from Quebec 
with thirty men to occupy the old fort at the mouth 
of the Saint John River. Once more its ruined bas- 
tions, which had been deserted for well-nigh a half- 
century, were trodden by armed men ; and the colors 
of France again waved over them. The English at 
Halifax, which was founded in that year, at once 
took the alarm ; and Gov. Cornwallis ordered Capt. 
Rous to go to Saint John, and order the French to 
desist from erecting fortifications there. In July, 
1749, he proceeded in the ship of war "Albany " to 
Saint John, and for some days saw nothing of the 
French. Finally a French schooner laden with pro- 
visions arrived, and was seized ; but Capt. Rous 
offered to release her, provided the master would go 



98 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

up tlie river in a canoe, and bring down the French 
officer. Boislierbert, it appears, was at the time 
engaged in constructing a small fort at the mouth 
of the Nerepis, on the west side of the Saint John. 
The master of the schooner went up the river to find 
him ; and on the following day the French officer 
made his appearance at the head of thirty troops and 
one hundred and fifty Indians, and they planted their 
colors on the shore opposite to where the " Albany " 
was Ijing at anchor. Capt. Kous ordered them to 
strike their colors ; and this, after some demurring, 
was done. Boislierbert, in excuse for his presence 
there, produced letters from the governor of Canada, 
ordering him to prevent the English from settling at 
Saint John, on the ground that the territory belonged 
to France. A letter from Cornwallis, ordering him 
to desist from erecting forts at Saint John, was 
delivered to Boisherbert ; and Rous retired, taking 
with him some of the chiefs of the Saint John River 
Indians for the purpose of arranging a treaty. 
Boisherbert afterwards wrote to Gov. Cornwallis, 
disavowing any intention of fortifying or building 
at Saint John, but stating that his orders were not 
to allow any one else to build at Saint John until 
the right of possession had been settled between 
the two crowns. Notwithstanding this disavowal, 
the fort at Nerepis, of the existence of which the 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF SAINT JOHN. 99 

Englisli were then unaware, was finished ; and, as 
if to show the determination of the French to 
retain the continental part of Acadia, an officer 
named Le Corne was sent from Quebec with seventy 
men to take possession of the Isthmus of Chignecto. 
There in the following year arose the bastions of the 
strongest fort yet erected in Acadia, the grim and 
formidable Beausejour. 

For the next five years there was no material 
change in the aspect of affairs in Nova Scotia. The 
French continued to fortify themselves at Chignecto 
and Saint John ; and it was finall}^ resolved by the 
British authorities in Massachusetts and Nova Scotia 
to dispossess them. An expedition was organized in 
New England by Gov. Shirley, consisting of about 
two thousand men, and placed under the command 
of Col. Monckton. They sailed fiom Boston in 
May, 1755, in thirty-six vessels, large and small, in- 
cluding three frigates, and on the 2d June appeared 
off Fort Beausejour, which they attacked ; and on 
the 16th June it surrendered. As soon as this 
French stronghold was captured, Capt. Rous was 
sent with three twenty-gun ships, and a sloop, to 
look into the Saint John River, where it was re- 
ported that there were two French ships of thirty- 
six guns each. He anchored off the mouth of the 

river, and sent in his boats to reconnoitre ; but 

L.crO. 



100 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

there was no vessel in the harbor. As soon, how- 
ever, as the French on shore saw them, they burst 
their cannon, blew up their magazine, burned every- 
thing they could belonging to the fort, and marched 
off. 

The forcible removal of the French inhabitants 
from Nova Scotia took place in the same year, not 
long after the fall of Beausejour. It was a cruel 
and extreme act, but was rendered necessary by 
their turbulent character and their determination 
not to live peaceably under the British flag. In 
some parts the deportation of the inhabitants was. 
effected without much difficulty. At Grand Pre 
1,923 French men, women, and children were col- 
lected and peaceably removed. But at Chignecto, 
Shepody, and other places, resistance was offered; 
and large numbers of the inhabitants from these parts 
fled to the River Saint John. It was calculated that 
Boisherbert, the French officer in command of the 
river, was at one time at the head of as many as one 
thousand five hundred of these French fugitives. 
Their presence caused no small amount of uneasiness 
to the authorities at Halifax. For the French, thus 
re-enforced, were again able to hold the mouth of 
the River Saint John, and they had a fortified post at 
Saint Ann's, ninety miles up the river, on the site of 
the present city of Fredericton. The destruction 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF SAINT JOHN. 101 

of both posts and the enth'e removal of the French 
from the river were objects to which the attention of 
the Enghsh was now directed. At all events, it was 
clear that the fort at the mouth of the river must be 
re-occupied. 

Accordingly in the summer of 1758 three ships 
of war and two transports, with two regiments, one 
of Highlanders and the other of Provincial troops, 
on board, were despatched from Boston to recapture 
Fort La Tour. They landed at Negro Town Point, 
and cut a road through the woods to the place 
where the Carleton City Hall now stands, which was 
then used as a vegetable-garden by the French. 
From there they advanced against the fort in order 
of battle, and, after one repulse, succeeded in carry- 
ing it by assault. They captured two hundred or 
three hundred prisoners ; and the rest of the garrison 
escaped across the river in boats, and finally made 
their way up river. Many, however, were killed in 
the boats by the shots of the attacking party. The 
loss of both French and English was heavy, espe- 
cially of the former, — more than forty being killed. 
This ended their occupation of the mouth of the Saint 
John ; and soon after the French were driven entirely 
from the river, except a few families who continued 
to reside near Saint Ann's. Fort La Tour was occu- 
pied and garrisoned by the English, and renamed 



102 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

Fort Frederick. A blockhouse was also erected at 
Fort Howe. 

The autumn of 1759 was distinguished by one of 
the most violent gales of wind that ever was known 
in these latitudes. The damage done was immense. 
Whole forests were blown down ; the tide rose six 
feet above its ordinary level, and all the dikes were 
destroyed. A considerable part of Fort Frederick 
at Saint John was washed away. The descriptions 
given of this storm naturally recall the effects of the 
great gale and tidal wave which did so much damage 
throughout the maritime provinces a few years ago. . 

At this period Col. Arbuthnot was in command of 
Fort Frederick ; and its garrison consisted of about 
a hundred and fifty or two hundred men. The com- 
mandant was very busy in keeping the Indians in 
order, and watching the French, and seems altogether 
to have had rather an uneasy time of it. He suc- 
ceeded in removing some hundreds of the French 
inhabitants of the river to other places. His soldiers 
appear to have grown tired of the monotony of life 
at Saint John ; for in tile spring of 1760, in spite of 
all persuasion, seventy of them openly left in one 
schooner, and eighty in another, to return to their 
homes in New Eng^land. This desertion must have 
left Arbuthnot's garrison very weak ; and he seems 
about this time to have given up the command of 



\ 

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF SAINT JOHN. 103 

Fort Frederick, for Lieut. Tong was in command 
of It in July, 1760. He represented his fort at that 
time as being greatly in need of repairs and altera- 
tions to make it defensible. 

In 1761 the settlement of the marsh-lands about 
Sackville was commenced by colonists from the 
older English colonies, and in the following year a 
number of English settlers removed to the Saint 
John River, but in 1764 an immigration on a more 
extended scale took place. Mr. James Simonds, the 
ancestor of the present family of that name, with 
Mr. Janes White and Capt. Francis Peabody, arrived 
on the site of the present city of Saint John on the 
16th April of that year, determined to make it their 
home. S'monds and White erected small dwellings 
at the foot of the hill, now known as Fort Howe. 
Capt. Peabody commenced the formation of a settle- 
ment at Maugerville in the county of Sunbury. This 
settlement, which was named after Joshua Mauger, 
an English merchant who was agent for the Province 
of Nova Scotia, was composed- mainly of colonists 
from Massachusetts. 

Although the date of this settlement is generally 
put dovn 1766, it is quite certain that it was com- 
pletely established in 1764, as is proved by a memo- 
randum made in that year by Mr. Grant of Halifax, 
who gives the number of English inhabitants then 



104 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

living on the Saint John at four hundred. In 17^5 
the settlement was erected into a county by the name 
of Sunbury, and accorded two representatives in the 
House of Assembly at Halifax. Large grants of land 
had been in the mean time made on the Saint John 
to actual settlers and to influential persons who 
wished to be great land-owners in Nova Scotia. But 
there was land enough for all, and these enormous 
reserves did not hinder the progress of settleiTient. 
In 1766 Ensign Jeremiah Meara was in command of 
Fort Frederick, which was still maintained as a post ; 
and we find him writing to Halifax to complain of 
two of the settlers, Israel Perley and Col. orlazier, 
for injury and violence to the Indians. Tie latter 
had a large grant at the mouth of Nerepis, which is 
named on the plans of that day, " Glazier's Manor." 
In 1768 the troops were withdrawn fiom Fort 
Frederick, except a corporal and four nen ; and 
Messrs. Simonds and White left to pursue their 
peaceful avocations, fishing and farmings without 
military protection. This measure seems to have 
emboldened the Indians to give trouble m a sneak- 
ing way ; and in 1771 they burnt a storehouse and 
dwelling. 



CHAPTER IX. 

HISTOEICAL SKETCH OF ST. JOHN. 

From 1774 to 1874. — Establishment of Government. — "War between 
the Colonies and Great Britain, — Indian Warfare. — The Open- 
ing of Trade. — Landing of the Loyalists. — Great Fires in St. 
John. — First Church. — First Newspaper. — Visits from Distin- 
guished Persons. — War with France. — War of 1812. — Facts 
and Incidents of Kecent History. 

nn HE first representative for the county of Sun- 
bury in the Nova Scotia Assembly was Charles 
Morris, son of the surveyor-general of Nova Scotia ; 
and in 1774 James Simonds was also elected a mem- 
ber, the county being at that time entitled to two 
representatives. A court of common pleas had been 
held in Sunbury from the year 1766, so that the 
people on the River Saint John had all the para- 
phernalia of government ; and, although they some- 
times complained of the Indians, seem to have in- 
creased and multiplied, and gone about their daily 
routine of duty with a reasonable degree of assur- 
ance that their scalps were safe. But troublous 
times were at hand. 

105 



106 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

The disputes between Great Britain and her colo- 
nies on this continent, whicli arose out of the at- 
tempt of the mother country to impose taxes on the 
latter, culminated in the year 1775, and produced 
bloodshed. The revolted colonists, not content with 
recovering the independence of their own country, 
were ambitious enough to attempt to reduce both 
Canada and Nova Scotia ; and at first there seemed 
to be every reason to believe that they would suc- 
ceed. The people of Sunbury, or rather the great 
majority of them, were in sympathy with their kin- 
dred in New England, and, before the war was over, 
showed their disloj^alty by stronger means than mere 
words. In the mean time the act of a raiding-party 
from Machias, Me., exhibited the extent of the danger 
to which Saint John and the whole Province was ex- 
posed. In August, 1775, Stephen Smith, a Machias 
man, and a delegate to the Massachusetts Congress, 
came to Saint John in an armed sloop, and of course 
met with no resistance. He burned Fort Frederick 
and the barracks, took the few men who had charge 
of the fort prisoners, and captured a brig of a hun- 
dred and twenty tons, laden 'with oxen, sheep, and 
swine, which were intended for the British troops at 
Boston. This sudden raid had the effect of putting 
the British authorities on the alert; and vessels of 
war were sent to cruise off Saint John, to protect the 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF SAINT JOHN. 107 

ports in tlie Bay of Fundy from these incursions. 
The governor of Nova Scotia also sent expresses to 
engage the Indians on the side of the crown. 

In 177G a bold attempt was made to capture Fort 
Cumberland, in which some of the inhabitants of 
Sunbury took part. The leader in this attempt was 
Jonathan Eddy, a native of Massachusetts, who had 
lived some twelve years on the marsh-lands about 
Chignecto, and represented Cumberland County in 
the assembly at Halifax. He conceived the idea of 
winning reputation by the capture of Fort Cumber- 
land in the autumn of 1776 ; went to Boston, where 
he conferred with the council of war there ; and, re- 
ceiving some encouragement, he chartered a small 
vessel at Newburyport, and, with a few followers and 
some arms and ammunition, he proceeded to Machi- 
as, where about twenty men joined him. At Passa- 
maquoddy he obtained a few more; and, going up 
the Saint John River as far as Maugerville, he was 
joined by a company of twenty-five men, a captain, 
lieutenant, and sixteen Indians, which brought the 
number of his force up to seventy-two. Eddy em- 
barked his men in whale-boats and canoes, and in a 
few days reached Shepody, where he surprised a 
picket-guard from Fort Cumberland, capturing Capt. 
Walker and thirteen men. At Sackville they cap- 
tured a sloop laden with provisions ; and lying close, 



108 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

several persons who came down from the fort to the 
sloop, amongst others the engineer, were taken. 
Eddy's successes induced about a hundred of the 
inhabitants of the marsh district to join him in 
attempting the capture of Fort Cumberland, which 
was commanded by Col. Gorham. 

The fort was summoned ; but the demand to give 
it up was prom^Dtly refused, and an attack which 
Eddy subsequently made was repulsed with loss. 
This attack was made on the 12th November ; and 
the investment of the fort was continued until the 
28th, when Eddy and his troops were attacked by 
the garrison, and by a detachment from Windsor 
under Major Bott, and compelled to retire. Late in 
December they reached Maugerville, dispirited, worn 
out with fatigue, and half-starved. 

This taste of warfare does not seem to have satis- 
fied the disloyal people of Sunbury. Several public 
meetings were held at Maugerville, at which resolu- 
tions of sympathy with the people of New England 
were passed ; and Asa Perley and Asa Kimball were 
appointed a committee to go to Boston, and solicit 
assistance and munitions of war from the people of 
Massachusetts, to enable them to rebel against Brit- 
ain successfully. The result of this mission was that 
Col. John Allan, who had been obliged to fly from 
Cumberland for his disloyal plots, was sent by the 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF SAINT JOHN. 109 

government of Massachusetts, to act as colonel and 
superintendent of the Eastern Indians, and to raise 
the necessary force to take possession of the country 
on the Saint John River, and hold it for the United 
States. In April, 1777, Allan left Boston with some 
supplies, and in May took his departure from Machi- 
as with a party of forty-three men in whale-boats and 
canoes. They arrived at Saint John in safety, and 
effected a landing. Allan appears to have gone at 
once to Aukj)aque, an Indian settlement above Fred- 
ericton, where he engaged in conferences with the 
inhabitants and the Indians, leaving a detachment at 
the mouth of the river, who made their headquarters 
at Simonds's house at the foot of Fort Howe. On 
Monday, the 23d June, the British war-sloop " Vul- 
ture " entered the harbor ; and Allan's men were at 
once attacked. The latter, being protected, suc- 
ceeded in inflicting some loss on the British as they 
landed from their boats, six of the latter being killed 
and wounded out of a force of forty men. 

A few days later the British war-ship " Mermaid " 
arrived ; and on the approach of this additional force 
the rebels fled to the woods, where, from their 
knowledge of the country, they expected to be able 
to maintain themselves. This, however, Capt. 
Hawker, who commanded the British, resolved to 
prevent; and he was about making dispositions of 



110 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

his forces to dislodge them, when a detachment of a 
hundred and twenty men from Fort Cumberland 
landed, and took them in flank. The main Ibody of 
Allan's party retreated to Grand Bay, where their 
boats were; and Capt. Dyer, who was left with a 
rear-guard of twelve men to observe the motions of 
the British, was so closely pursued that he had three 
men killed and two wounded. Allan's force then 
retreated up the river, the British pursuing them. 
Allan, who had succeeded in gaining the good-will 
of the Indians, and promises of aid from them, was 
on his way to the mouth of the river, when he met 
his retreating force in five boats. He at once turned 
and fled with them, and on the 1st of July arrived 
at Maugerville. On the following day he reached 
the Indian settlement of Aukpaque, where he had 
been received with so much ceremony and considera- 
tion by the savages a short time before. There all 
was terror and confusion ; for the British were still 
in pursuit. The Indians abandoned their settlement 
for the time, and fled; and the sequel was that 
Allan, abandoned by his Indian allies, and with his 
own men on the verge of mutiny, had to make a 
hasty retreat to Maine, by way of Eel River and the 
Scoudac Lakes, arriving at Machias Aug. 2, 1777. 
Thus ended this bold attempt to gain possession of 
the River Saint John. 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF SAINT JOHN. Ill 

On the 24th September, 1777, Mr. Franklin, the 
Indian commissioner, made a treaty with the Mali- 
cites and Micmacs at Fort Howe, Saint John ; and 
from that time the Nova Scotia government experi- 
enced no difficulty with these tribes. The post at 
Fort Howe was held by a small force under the 
command of Capt. Studholm. He commenced the 
export of masts from Saint John for the use of 
the navy ; and the first cargo of these arrived at Hali- 
fax, Nov. 22, 1780. During the following winter a 
second cargo was prepared at Saint John, consisting 
of upwards of two hundred sticks for masts, spars, and 
bowsprits ; and they were shipped on board a trans- 
port in May, 1781. These operations, inconsidera- 
ble as they were, naturally drew workmen to Saint 
John, and mark the beginning of the trade of this 
now busy city. New England privateers were, how- 
ever, very active on our coast at that time, and 
threatened to strangle the infant commerce of the 
port. In May, 1781, they captured a schooner 
belonging to Capt. Sheffield, laden with goods for 
Saint John ; but she was retaken by a volunteer force 
from Cornwallis. In 1782 the cutting of spars on 
the Hiver Saint John went on without interruption, 
and the settlements continued to grow in population. 
In this year Saint John had become a port of entry, 
James White being the first collector of customs. 



112 



GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 



The tonnage which entered Saint John during that 
year amounted to a hundred and forty-four tons ; and 
the vessels which cleared amounted to a hundred 
and sixty-five tons. As a matter of curiosity, we 
append a Hst of the vessels which entered and 
cleared at Saint John in that year. 



Entered. 






Tons. 


Cleared. 






Tons, 


Rosanna . . . .17 


Rosanna . . . .17 


Betsy 






. 10 


Peggy 






. 8 


Escape 






. 10 


Betsy 






. 10 


Polly . 






. 10 


Escape 






. 10 


Sally . 






. 10 


Polly . 






. 10 


Lark . 






. 18 


Sally . 






. 10 


Ranger 






. 12 


Lark . 






. 18 


Prosperity . 






. 10 


Ranger 






. 12 


Unity 






. 10 


Prosperity 






. 10 


Speedy 






. 7 


Unity 






. 10 


Little Tom 




. 30 


Little Tom 




. 30 




Monaguash 




. 30 


Total tonnage . 144 













Total ton 


nage 


. 


165 



Such was the shipping of Saint John less than a 
century ago. A tolerably correct idea of the state of 
the settlements on the Saint John River at the close 
of this year may be gathered from a letter written 
by Amos Botsford, an agent for the Loyalists, who 
had been examining the country with a view to 
settlement. He says the inhabitants of the Saint 
John River are " computed to be near a thousand 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF SAINT JOHN. 113 

men able to bear arms." Pie says also, " The settlers 
are cliiefly poor people who come here and get theii 
living easily. They cut down the trees, burn the 
tops, put in a crop of wheat or Indian corn, which 
yields a plentiful increase. These intervals would 
make the finest meadows. The uplands produce 
both wheat of the summer and winter kinds, as well 
as Indian corn. Here are some wealthy farmers, 
having flocks of cattle. Tlie greater part of the 
people, excepting the township of Maugerville, are 
tenants, or seated on the bank without leave or 
license, merely to get their living." 

The year 1783 was the most memorable of any in 
the history of St. John, for it was the year of the 
landing of the Loyalists. But for them St. John 
might have struggled on for years through a pro- 
tracted and sickly infancy; but the coming of the 
Loyalists brought it, in a few short months, from the 
dimensions of a hamlet to those of a respectable 
town. The war between Great Britain and her 
colonists was over, and the latter had gained their 
independence. Had they been wise, they would 
have tempered their triumph with moderation ; they 
would have encouraged those who had espoused the 
royal cause to remain and assist in building up the 
new nation which they had founded. Instead of 
this, they committed one of the most stupendous 



114 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

acts of short-siglited folly ever perpetrated by a 
people. They passed edicts of banishment against 
the persons, and acts of confiscation against the 
estates, of the Loyalists. They drove them out, poor 
in purse indeed, but rich in experience, determina- 
tion, energy, education, intellect, and the other 
qualities which build up states, and with their hearts 
fired and their energies stimulated with hatred of 
republicanism; they drove them out seventy thou- 
sand strong, to build up a rival nation at their very 
doors, to found new communities in British America, 
destined to grow before a century had elapsed into a 
great dominion, which would never have had an 
existence but for the rash folly of those who perse- 
cuted the Loyalists. 

Early in the spring of 1783 the emigration of the 
Loyalists from the United States commenced, and the 
first ship-load arrived at St. John on the 10th May. 
Twenty vessels arrived between the 10th and 18th 
May. The names of these vessels were, " The 
Camel," Capt. Tinker ; " The Union," Capt. Wilson ; 
" The Aurora," Capt. Jackson ; " The Hope," Capt. 
Peacock ; " The Otter," Capt. Burns ; " The Spen- 
cer; " " The Emmett," Capt. Reed ; " The Thames ; " 
"The Spring," Capt. Cadish ; "The Bridgewater ; " 
"The Favorite," Capt. Ellis; "The Ann," Capt. 
Clark; "The Commerce," Capt. Strong j "The 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF SAINT JOHN. 115 

William;" "The Lord Townshend," Capt. Hogg; 
"The Sovereign," Capt. Stuart; " The Sally," Capt. 
Bell; "The Cyrus," "The Britain," and "The 
King George," twenty ships in all. These ships 
were all from New York. The spring was wet and 
cold ; and, no houses or accommodations being pro- 
vided for them, the Loyalists did not land until the 
18th May. These men were expatriated exiles, men 
whose property had been confiscated, men without a 
country. Yet among them, as we have said, were 
some of the keenest intellects of the revolted colo- 
nies, the great lights of the law and of the Church, 
and the men who had filled high offices under the 
old order of things in New England and New York. 
Some had fought through the war in regular or par- 
tisan corps ; others had not ; but all were involved 
in one common ruin. 

When the Loyalists reached St. John, civilization 
had made such small advances against the rugged 
might of nature, that, with the exception of a small 
clearing about Fort Howe, the whole site of the 
present city of Portland northward of Saint John 
was a dense forest. It was rocky and rough, too, 
beyond the ordinary rudeness of a wilderness ; and 
those who have seen with what Titanic labor streets 
have been hewed through the rocks in Saint John can 
form some idea of the forbidding appearance it must 



116 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

have presented to those exiled and dispirited people 
who first undertook to found a city here. The Loy- 
alists landed on the 18th May, the landing in most 
cases being effected at Lower Cove, near what was 
the old Sydney Market-House before the fire. 

A few log huts were the only buildings at that 
time on the site of St. John ; and the first care of 
the Loyalists was to provide shelter for themselves. 
Temporary sheds were at first erected, and after- 
wards residences of a more substantial character. 
The first fleet of ships brought upwards of three 
thousand Loyalists to St. John, so that the task of 
providing sufficient accommodation for so many was 
no light one. Large numbers also arrived in sub- 
sequent vessels in the course of the summer and 
autumn. They seem to have entered on their task 
with great industry and alacrity ; and, long before 
the arrival of winter, comfortable provision had been 
made for the sheltering of all who arrived. Most 
of the dwellings erected were built of logs, and the 
first framed house finished by the Loyalists was a 
place of worship. It v/as erected on a lot (No. 121) 
on the east side of Germain Street, about midway 
between Queen and Duke Streets. It was used by 
the Episcopalians until Christmas Day, 1791, when 
Trinity . Church was first opened, and subsequently 
as a place of worship by the Methodists and Bap- 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF SAINT JOHN. 117 

tists. The courts and the meetmgs of the Common 
Council were also held in this building until 1798. 

The governor of Nova Scotia at the time of the 
arrival of the Loyalists was John Parr, Esq. ; and St. 
John was at first named Parrtown, after this gentle- 
man. The town was laid out in lots, and granted to 
the Loyalist families residing here ; there being 1,184 
grantees in one grant at St. John, and 93 in another. 

Great jealousy soon arose among the Loyalists 
with regard to this matter of granting lands in the 
new colony. In August, 1783, the dissatisfaction 
was so great at St. John, that four hundred persons 
had sis^ned an ao-reement to remove to Passama- 
quoddy. The exact reasons for the dissatisfaction 
which existed are at this day a little obscure ; but 
there is no doubt that the undue partiality shown to 
some Loyalists of wealth and position, to the detri- 
ment of others who had suffered equally from the 
result of the war, lay at the foundation of the 
troubles. Abijah Willard, who settled in the par- 
ish of Lancaster, and fifty-four others, addressed a 
petition to Sir Guy Carleton, asking for extensive 
grants in Nova Scotia. They represented that their 
position in life had been very respectable, and that 
previous to the Revolution they had possessed much 
influence. They therefore asked for grants of land 
in Nova Scotia of the same extent as had been g^iven 



118 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

to field-officers. This petition was made public at 
St. John, and caused much excitement. Many 
people declared their pulses beat too high for them 
to become the tenants or vassals of the worthy fifty- 
five. It is pretty evident that our fathers were no 
more free from political troubles than their descend- 
ants are at the present day. 

The population of the Province of New Brunswick, 
toAvards the close of the year 1783, was estimated at 
11,457. Upwards of twelve hundred more Loyalists 
had arrived from New York in November of that 
year. City lots in Parrtown were worth from two 
dollars up to twenty dollars, according to locality; 
but real estate, owing to the great influx of people, 
had at that time attained a fictitious value, which it 
afterwards lost. A lot on which the " Daily Tele- 
graph" newspaper office stood before the fire was 
sold in 1786 to Dr. Adino Paddock for five shillings. 
It would now be cheap at ten thousand dollars. The 
date of the original plan of survey of Parrtown is 
Aug. 6, 1784. It is signed by Gov. Parr ; Paul 
Bedell, deputy surveyor, and Gilfred Studholm, 
superintendent. 

The first winter spent by the new settlers was a 
severe one, and many died. There is no record of 
the first Loyalist death in St. John ; but the first 
man married was Andrew Stockton, and the fact is 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF SAINT JOHN. 119 

duly recorded on liis tombstone. Tlie year 1784 was 
rather an eventful one. The agitations, with regard 
to the granting of land, continued at St. John, and 
a new one sprung up demanding a separation from 
Nova Scotia. Even in Nova Scotia proper, at this 
time and long afterwards, there were brisk contests 
between the Loyalists, or new-comers, and the old 
settlers. In August of this year, information was 
received from England that that portion of Nova 
Scotia north of the Misseguash was to be erected 
into a new Province by the name of New Brunswick. 

On Friday, the 18th June, 1784, the first of these 
calamities by fire, which have been so destructive in 
St. John, took place. Eleven houses were burned, 
the sufferers being chiefly discharged soldiers of the 
Forty-second Regiment. On the same day seven 
houses were consumed at the falls, and a woman and 
child burnt to death. 

In August of this year Neliemiah Beckwith, 
afterwards a resident of Fredericton, built a scow or 
tow-boat to ply between Parrtown and Saint Ann's, 
the first attempt to establish regular communication 
between the two places. From such an humble 
beginning did the great traffic now moving on the 
Saint John River take its rise. 

In October Mr. Thomas Carleton, the governor 
of the new Province of New Brunswick, arrived at 



120 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

Halifax with Ms family from London, in the " Saint 
Lawrence," Capt. Wyatt, after a passage of eight 
weeks. On Sunday, the 21st November, at three 
o'clock in the afternoon, he arrived at Saint John 
with his lady and family, having crossed the bay 
from Digby in six hours in the sloop " Ranger," Cor- 
nelius Hatfield master. He received an enthusiastic 
welcome from the Loyalists. A salute of seventeen 
guns was fired from Lower Cove Battery as " The 
Ranger" entered the harbor; and, as he landed, a 
similar salute was thundered from Fort Howe. A 
great concourse of the inhabitants received him with 
shouts of welcome, and escorted him to the house 
of Mr. (xeorge Leonard, corner Union and Dock 
Streets, which had been fitted up for his reception. 
On his entering the house, the crowd gave him three 
cheers, and cries of " Long live our king and gov- 
ernor ! " On the following day his commission was 
read, after which he was sworn in as captain-general 
and commander-in-chief. On the same day Duncan 
Ludlow, James Putnam, Abijah Willard, Gabriel G. 
Ludlow, Isaac Allan, William Hazen, and Jonathan 
Odell were sworn in members of his Majesty's coun- 
cil, and its first meeting was held. The new governor 
was addressed by the inhabitants, who called them- 
selves " a number of oppressed and insulted Loyal- 
ists," and congratulated him on his arrival " to check 



BTSTORICAL SKETCH OF SAINT JOHN. 121 

the arrogance of tyranny, crush the growth of injus- 
tice, and establish such wholesome laws as are and 
ever have been the basis of our glorious constitu- 
tion." They added that they were formerly freemen, 
and again hoped to be under his auspices. The 
friends of a Maritime Union will note with what 
resentful feelings the provinces of New Brunswick 
and Nova Scotia were separated. Five days after 
this first meeting of the council, Gilfred Studholm 
was sworn in, and took his seat; and, on the 4th 
December, Edward Winslow. In July, 1786, the 
number was further increased by the appointment 
of Joshua Upham and Daniel Bliss. The first chief 
justice of New Brunswick was George D. Ludlow ; 
and the assistant judges were James Putnam, Isaac 
Allan, and Joshua Upham. All were sworn in on the 
same day, — the 25th November, 1784. The supreme 
court was opened for the first time in New Bruns- 
wick on Tuesday, Feb. 1, 1785. It met in the build- 
ing on Germain Street, already referred to, which 
the Loyalists built for public worship. The Hon. 
George D. Ludlow and Hon. James Putnam were on 
the bench. After the formal opening of the court, 
the commission appointing the judges was read ; and 
also the appointment of Ward Chipman as attorney- 
general, and of Colin Campbell as clerk of the 
courts. The first grand jury were as follows : — 



122 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

Richard Liglitfoot, John Kirk, Francis Deveber, 
John Camp, William Harding, John Colville, Henry 
Thomas, John Hazen, John Smith, Munson Jarvis, 
John Boggs, Oliver Arnold, Caleb Howe, David Mel- 
ville, Isaac Bell, Richard Bonsall, James Ketchum, 
Luke D. Thornton, Anthony Narraway. 

In February, 1785, Gov. Carleton selected St. 
Ann's Point as the future seat of government of 
the Province, and Douglas Campbell was directed 
to survey the town-plat there ; the place to be 
called Fredericton, after the bishop of Osnaburg. 
On the 18th May, 1785, Parrtown and Carleton 
were, by royal charter, erected into a city, to be 
called the city of St. John. The new city was 
bounded " by a line to commence and beginning 
near Fort Howe, at Portland Point, at low-water- 
mark, and thence running a direct line to a small 
point or ledge of land at the causey by the old saw- 
mill ; thence east-north-east until a direct line shall 
strike the creek running through Hazen's marsh on 
the east side of the eastern district aforesaid ; thence 
along the course of the said creek to its mouth; 
thence by a line running south, nineteen degrees 
west, into the bay, until it meets a line running east 
from the south point of Partridge Island, and along 
the said line to the said point ; thence by a direct 
line to a point on the shore, which is at the, south- 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF SAINT JOHN. 123 

east extremity of a line running south forty-two 
degrees east from the River St. John to tlie Bay 
of Fundy, and terminating the town-lots of the 
western district aforesaid; thence along the said 
line north forty-two degrees west to the River St. 
John aforesaid, and continuing the said course 
across the said river until it meets the opposite 
shore, and from thence along the north shore of 
the said river at low-water-mark to Portland Point 
aforesaid." 

On the 11th October, 1785, the first number of 
" The Royal Gazette and New-Brunswick Adver- 
tiser" was published at St. John by Christopher 
Sower, king's printer. This was the first v^eekly 
paper published in New Brunswick. In this year, 
too, "William Cobbett, a man afterwards widely 
famed as a newspaper-writer, came to St. John 
from England, as a recruit, to join the Fifty-fourth 
Regiment, then stationed at Fort Howe ; and it 
was here he met with the sergeant's pretty daugh- 
ter, who became his wife. The block-house on Fort 
Howe was at that time, for want of a more suitable 
building, used as a jail. The elections for members 
to sit in the first New-Brunswick General Assem- 
bly were held in November, 1785, and in St. John 
were signalized by great riots. The members elect 
for St. John City were Stanton Hazard and John 



124 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

McGeorge ; for the county of St. Jolin, William 
Pagan, Ward Chipman, Jonathan Bliss, and Chris- 
topher Billop. The democratic element evidently 
had it all its own way in the city ; but it was other- 
wise in the count}^ 

The first parliament of New Brunswick met in 
Saint John on the 3d January, 1786, in the " Mallard 
House," which was on the north side of King Street, 
on the second lot below Germain. Amos Botsford 
was chosen speaker of the house ; and G. D. Ludlow, 
the chief justice, the president of the council. The 
first clerk of the house was William Paine. The 
number of acts passed at this first session was sixty- 
one ; and they will compare favorably with those of 
any session held since then. 

In this year Saint John made considerable advances 
in the appliances of civilization, although it had, as 
was to be expected, lost many of its original inhabit- 
ants, who merely made it a temporary abiding-place 
until they could select lands in the country in which 
to settle. Gen. Benedict Arnold, the traitor, was 
then a resident there, and had a lumber-yard near 
the old fort, on the west side of the harbor on the 
Carleton side. His residence was on the south side 
of King Street, below Canterbury Street. The lot 
on which his store stood has never been occupied 
since the destruction of the building many years ago. 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF SAINT JOHN. 125 

and was vacant at the time of the last fire. He Avas 
the first ship-owner of any ]3retensions in Saint John ; 
and on the 1st June, 1786, we read tkvt " an entire 
new and most noble ship called ' Lord Sheffield,' " 
and built for Benedict Arnold, came through the 
falls. In the same " Royal Gazette," June 3, it is 
announced that the corporation having purchassd 
two fire-engines for the use of the city, and having 
directed one to be kept at the Market-Place, Upper 
Cove, the other at the Market-Place, Lower Cove, 
those who incline to join the two engine-companies 
will leave their names with Mr. Munson Jarvis and 
Mr. John Colviile, merchants. On the 11th July, 
the schooner " Four Sisters " is advertised to sail 
from Saint John to Fredericton every Tuesday, wind 
and weather permitting. So here we have a wonder- 
ful advance on Mr. N. Beckwith's scow of two years 
before. Shipping did not trouble the harbor of Saint 
John much in its infant days ; and the Loyalists could 
only solace each other with the utterance of the 
prophetic hope that " ships will come here from 
England yet." 

In February, 1787, a post-sleigh commenced to 
run between Saint John and Fredericton. There 
being no roads, the ice on the river was made avail- 
able as a highway. The enterprising proprietor 
of this conveyance was L. Merecreau, evidently 



126 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

a Frencliman. On the 13th of the same month, 
the second meeting of the legislature, and the last 
held in Saint John, took place. The acts of this 
session were twelve in number, the piincipal one 
being an act to establish the provincial militia. 
In August of this year, the lord-bishop of Nova 
Scotia, after administering confirmation to a great 
number of persons, laid the corner-stone of Trinity 
Church in Saint John, being the same building de- 
stroyed in the last fire, although it had been several 
times remodelled. It was opened for public worship 
on Christmas Day, 1791, and stood as a monu- 
ment of the religious zeal of the Loyalists, adorned 
with the same royal coat-of-arms which they brought 
with them from Trinity Church, New York, when 
the British army evacuated that city in 1783. The 
first rector of Saint John was the Rev. Mr. Bissett. 

On the 15th July, 1788, the provincial legisla- 
ture was transferred from St. John to Fredericton, 
where its sessions have since been held. Saint John 
lost nothing by ceasing to be the capital, and Freder-' 
icton made a gain. For some years after this the 
annals of Saint John are scanty enough. The prog- 
ress of a town in population and wealth is generally 
of so gradual a character as to leave no special 
points which the historian can take hold of; and 
this was notably the case with Saint John, which, 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF SAINT JOHN. 127 

after the first burst of activity caused by the ar- 
rival of the Loyalists, for some years must have 
progressed very slowly. In some remarks on Nova 
Scotia and New Brunswick, said to have been writ- 
ten by the surveyor-general of the former Province, 
which appear among the Transactions of the Massa- 
chusetts Historical Society for 1794, it is said of 
Saint John, " Its streets are regular and spacious ; 
and there are many decent, well-built houses. It 
contains about one thousand inhabitants." This 
paper, which bears no date, must have been written 
about the year 1790. 

In 1793 war broke out between Great Britain and 
France ; a war which, with two short intermissions, 
was destined to last for two and twenty years. A 
provincial regiment was at once raised in New Bruns- 
wick, of which Gov. Carleton was colonel, and Bev- 
erly Robinson lieutenant-colonel. On the 6th May 
intelligence was received here of a French privateer 
of ten guns with 45 men cruising in the Bay of 
Fundy; and a night patrol was established. Capt. 
Robert Reed, with a party of " Independent Volun- 
teers," took the first round of duty. Another guard- 
house was ordered to be fitted up for the watch, and 
a double guard placed on Lower Cove Battery. This 
work was then considered a formidable one, its guns 
being eighteen-pounders, and it was believed no ene- 



128 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

my's ship could pass it. It was proposed to fit out a 
vessel, and cruise after the Frenchman. A large pri- 
vateer sloop was fitted out at Saint John, and sent 
out under Capt. Thomas; but the Frenchman pru- 
dently kept out of the way. 

In May, 1794, occurred the highest freshet ever 
known in the Saint John. In June Prince Edward, 
Duke of Kent, the father of Queen Victoria, visited 
the Province. He left Halifax on the 14th, and 
sailed from Annapolis on the 16th in the "Zebra" 
sloop-of-war. At Saint John he was received by a 
captain's guard of the king's New Brunswick regi- 
ment. 

Attended by Gov. Carleton, he hastened on to 
Fredericton, where he arrived on Saturday evening, 
the 21st. From the river-bank where he landed, the 
road was lined by the troops in garrison and by Capt. 
Jarvis's Fredericton militia ; and the town was illu- 
minated. Next morning, notwithstanding the sacred 
character of the day, royal salutes were fired, a levee 
held, addresses presented by his Majesty's counsel 
for the Province and the inhabitants of the county 
of York, and the king's New-Brunswick militia were 
inspected. Early on Monday morning the prince and 
Gov. Carleton embarked again, and, passing through 
the falls, reached Saint John at two, P.M. On Tues- 
day, the 24th, the prince inspected the batteries and 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF SAINT JOHN. 129 

tlie ordnance stores ; and at threelield, p.m., a levee at 
the house of Mr. Chipman, the solicitor-general, which 
was crowded with the chief citizens and the officers 
in garrison. His grandson, the Prince of Wales, was 
entertained in this same house. The Duke of Kent, 
who seems to have been in a great hurry, left Saint 
John in " The Zebra " the same evening, amid the 
salutes and cheers of the inhabitants, and the firing 
of guns from the batteries. 

In 1795 there was considerable fear of French 
attacks, both in Saint John and Halifax; and the 
provincial regiment was ordered from Fredericton 
to Saint John. Privateer vessels, sailing under 
French colors, were at this time making havoc among 
the merchant vessels of New Brunswick and Nova 
Sjcotia. The house of assembly addressed the lieu- 
tenant-governor on the subject of procuring cruis- 
ers or guard-ships, to be stationed in the Bay of 
Fundy. Additional defences were also erected at 
Saint John, at the instance of the lieutenant-gover- 
nor, which the house refused to vote money to pay 
for. William Campbell was in this year appointed 
mayor of Saint John, an office which he continued 
to hold for more than twenty years. In this year, 
also, a grist wind-mill was erected on King Square, 
on the lot on which the Hazen House now stands. 
The enterprise was abandoned in 1800. 



130 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

In 1796 the commissioners under the fifth article 
of the Treaty of Ghent, to determine which was the 
true Saint Croix, were appointed. Ward Chipman 
of Saint John was appointed agent on the part of his 
Britannic Majesty, and E. Winslow secretary of the 
commission. In 1798 the commissioners gave their 
decision, which was that the Scoudac was the true 
Saint Croix of Champlain. 

In 1799 the Duke of Kent, who had been in Eng- 
land for his health, returned to Nova Scotia ; and the 
corporation of Saint John sent him an address of 
welcome. The people of New Brunswick this year 
also showed their patriotism by subscribing £3,085 
sterling, as a voluntary contribution to the military 
chest for 1798. 

Prior to the beginuing of the nineteenth century, 
it was not unfrequent to see negro slaves advertised 
for sale in the " Royah Gazette." Finally the legal- 
ity of slavery was tested before the Supreme Court. 
On Feb. 18, 1800, the Supreme Court divided equal- 
ly on this question ; the Chief Justice and Judge 
Upham holding slavery to be legal in the Province, 
and Judges Saunders and Allen considering slavery 
to be illegal. It was in this year that the first pro- 
posal was made of a survey for a canal, to connect 
the St. Lawrence and the Bay of Fundy ; a work 
which is destined in a few years to be an accom- 
plished fact, and of enormous benefit to Saint John. 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF SAINT JOHN. 131 

In 1800 the war with France was going on with 
as much vigor as ever ; and the 4th of July of that 
year a public fast was proclaimed in the Province 
on account of it. In 1801 most of the counties 
received grants to aid them in erecting court-houses 
and jails. 

In this year the Duke of Kent interested himself 
regarding the construction of a road between Halifax 
and Quebec. The famous Saint John dog-tax act 
was also passed in this year, the money realized there- 
from to be for the support of the poor. The roads 
of New Brunswick, about this time, seem to have 
been in a bad way ; for in January, 1803, D. Camp- 
bell reported that there were not ten miles of road 
in the Province fit for a wheel carriage, except in the 
county of Sunbury. 

In 1805 the public grammar school in Saint John 
was incorporated, and the College of New Brunswick 
established at Fredericton. 

Early in January, 1806, the news of Nelson's great 
victory at Trafalgar reached Saint John, and caused 
great rejoicing. Admiral Collingwood's despatches 
were published in the " Gazette/' of Jan. 13. A 
ball was held at Cody's coffee-house in honor of 
the event, which was attended, to use the language 
of the " Gazette," by a " great assembly of beauty 
and fashion." There were also celebrations at Nor- 



132 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

ton and Kingston, attended by the inevitable dinner 
and the drinking of the usual loyal toasts. 

In 1808 the good people of Saint John seem to 
have been under a good deal of anxiety with regard 
to the war with France ; for in January of that year 
an order was passed that no vessel or boat should be 
allowed to leave the harbor of Saint John without 
the countersign. On Feb. 12 Gabriel G. Ludlow, 
the first mayor of Saint John, died, and was buried 
in Carleton. He had been president and commander- 
in-chief of the Province from the year 1803. In 
June Capt. Shore, with two companies of the New 
Brunswick Fencibles, was sent to garrison Sydney, 
C.B. Among the wonderful events of this year may 
be mentioned an accident which happened to the 
Saint Andrews packet " Speedy." While lying at 
anchor, a whale, or some other sea-monster, fouled 
itself in her cable, and actually dragged her from her 
anchorage for a distance of more than three miles, to 
the infinite consternation of those on board. 

In June, 1809, the 101st Regiment, which had 
been in garrison at Saint John, was sent to the West 
Indies; and part of the New Brunswick Regiment was 
sent to Saint John to take its place. During the sum- 
mer the troops were employed in making a road from 
Fredericton to Saint John. On Oct. 16, 1809, a 
negro wench named Nancy was advertised for sale 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF SAINT JOHN. 133 

in the " Royal Gazette," by Daniel Brown, and a 
good title guaranteed ; so that, at that time, slavery 
was still deemed to exist in New Brunswick. 

In 1811 every thing pointed to a war between 
Great Britain and the United States. The New 
Brunswick Fencibles were, on Feb. 18, gazetted as 
his Majesty's 104th Eegiment, the first colonial regi- 
ment of the line. On Oct. 1 five commissioners 
of customs, for a special revenue inquiry, arrived 
at Saint John ; and on the same day an order in 
council was passed, proclaiming Saint John a free 
port. On the 30th October the freedom of the city 
was granted to Lieut.-Col. McCarthy of the Royal 
Artillery, who was about to leave the Province. 

In 1812 the long-impending war came. War was 
not formally declared by the United States against 
Great Britain until June 18, but the colonists had 
made preparations for it long before. A public fast 
was proclaimed in New Brunswick; but, while the 
people were praying, they were also sharpening their 
swords. On the 9th of March an act was passed 
appropriating the sum of £10,000 to his Majesty, in 
defence of the Province. This was a handsome do- 
nation, for the total revenue of New Brunswick at 
that period was only X 6,000. On the same day an 
act was passed " to encourage the erection of a pas- 
sage-boat, to be worked by steam, for facilitating the 



134 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

communication between the city of Saint John and 
Fredericton." This act gave certain persons the 
exclusive privilege of navigating the Saint John by 
steam for ten years. 

United States privateers soon began to swarm on 
the coast, and the Saint John people went into pri- 
vateering on their own account. A large number of 
men-of-war also cruised in the Bay of Fundy; so 
that between the arrival of prize vessels, and the 
excitement attending the news from the seat of war, 
matters were kept pretty lively in Saint John. The 
people on the borders of New Brunswick, on both 
sides of the line, took no part in the contest ; and 
this wise neutrality, while it prevented useless blood- 
shed, also left no bitter memories after the war was 
over. Gen. Smyth, the administrator of the Prov- 
ince, on the 8d of July issued a proclamation for- 
bidding any one under his command from offering 
any molestation to the United States people living 
on the frontier of New Brunswick, or interfering 
with their goods or their coasting-vessels. The war 
was not only very unpopular in Maine, but through- 
out the whole of New England. When the declara- 
tion of war reached Boston, all the vessels in port, 
except three, immediately hoisted their colors half- 
mast ; and the people soon compelled the three to 
follow the example of the others. On the Canadian 



EISTORTCAL SKETCH OF SAINT JOHN. 135 

frontier, and on the sea, however, the conflict was 
maintained with yigor. Towards the close of this 
year, various defensive works were erected at Saint 
John, Fort Frederick was repaired and strengthened, 
and batteries erected on Partrido-e Island and other 
points ; and a prominent pentagonal work was pro- 
posed to be erected at the mouth of the Nashwaak. 
A shocking occurrence happened on the 5th of 
December, 1812, which deeply concerned the people 
of Saint John. H. M. brig of war " Plumper," bound 
from Halifax to Saint John, was wrecked near Dipper 
Harbor, and upwards of fifty persons on board of 
her drowned. She was a twelve-gun brig, was com- 
manded by Lieut. J. Bray, and had $70,000 in specie 
for Saint John. This was probably the most fatal 
shipwreck that ever took place in the Bay of Fundy. 
There was at this time a demand for more troops 
in Western Canada ; and accordingly the New Bruns- 
wick Regiment, the 104th, was ordered to march 
overland to Quebec. They left Saint John under the 
command of Major Drummond, on Feb. 11, 1813, 
the people helping them out as far as the roads were 
passable with sleighs. Beyond that, the journey 
was performed on snow-shoes. This march, consid- 
ering the season of the year, and the character of 
the country traversed, must take its place among the 
greatest marches recorded in history. It is safe to 



136 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

say that such a march could not have been performed 
by any other men but the hardy forest pioneers of 
Northern America. The regiment reached Quebec 
as compact and perfect as when it left St. John, 
without losing a man. Arnold lost more than three 
hundred on the shorter route by the Kennebec, and 
during a mild season of the year; yet Arnold's 
march has been lauded as a wonderful proof of the 
vigor of the Continental troops in 1775, while this 
great march of the sons of the Loyalists is seldom 
mentioned. 

The departure of the 104th Regiment left Saint 
John somewhat bare of troops, although their places 
were in part supplied by the second battalion of the 
Eighth Regiment, which remained there. In compli- 
ance with the wish for more arms. Sir George Pre- 
vost sent from Halifax ten twenty-four pounders for 
the batteries on Partridge Island, and one thousand 
stand of muskets, by the store-ship " Diligence ; " 
but this vessel was driven ashore in a snow-storm on 
Beale's Island, to the westward of Machias. The 
vessel and what was saved of her cargo fell into the 
hands of the enemy. About this time a New-Bruns- 
wick fencible regiment was raised by Gen. Coffin for 
the defence of the Province ; and considerable num- 
bers of militia-men from Westmoreland and other 
counties were brought to Saint John to assist the 
regulars in garrison duty. 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF SATNT JOHN. 137 

On IMonda}^, the twenty-third day of May, 1814, 
the*news arrived at Saint John of the entry of the 
allied sovereigns into Paris, and the abdication of 
Napoleon. Great rejoicings followed. An ox was 
roasted whole in King's Square, and the city was 
illuminated. The Treaty of Paris, signed on the 
30th of the same month, brought the long period of 
war with France to a close. The war between Great 
Britain and the United States was brought to a close 
a few months later. The conclusion of this war 
brought a curious immigration to Saint John. Many 
of the black slaves in Maryland and Virginia had 
availed themselves of the presence of the British 
navy in Chesapeake Bay, and had taken refuge on 
board the EnHish men-of-war. Three hundred of 
these emancipated slaves arrived at Saint John on 
the 8th June, 1815; and the people here were a good 
deal puzzled how to dispose of them. They were 
subsequently settled at Loch Lomond, where their 
descendants are still numerous. 

News of the total defeat of Bonaparte at Water- 
loo was received at Saint John towards the close of 
July, and of course the people rejoiced as loyal citi- 
zens should. A patriotic fund was raised in all the 
colonies^ as well as in the mother country, for the 
families of the slain and of the severely wounded 
in that great battle. The large sum of 1,500 pounds 



138 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

was subscribed in Saint John, the first sixteen names 
on one list opened here giving 470 pounds. A theat- 
rical performance was given in the old theatre at 
the corner of Drury Lane and Union Street, which 
realized twenty pounds. That was the last time the 
building was used for theatrical purposes. 

On Feb. 12, 1816, the first advertisement of a 
steamboat to be run between Saint John and Fred- 
ericton was published in the " Royal Gazette ; " and 
on the 11th of April the steamboat " Gen. Smyth " 
was launched at Saint John. She was owned by J. 
Ward, R. Smith, H. Johnston, and P. Frazer ; and a 
considerable degree of diligence seems to have been 
exhibited in fitting her out, for she arrived at Fred- 
ericton on her first trip on the 21st May. 

On the 2d February, 1817, Gen. T. Carleton, who 
had been lieutenant-governor of the Province since 
its first inception, died in England at the age of 
eighty-one. Gen. Smyth became lieutenant-gover- 
nor in his place. On the 19th February, the New- 
Brunswick Regiment, the famous 104th, was reduced. 
In this year a meeting was held in Saint John for 
the purpose of establishing a national school. This 
year the population of New Brunswick was esti- 
mated at thirty-five thousand. It was in this year 
also that the first brick house was erected in Saint 
John, — the building on the corner of Germain and 
Church Streets, now destroyed. 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF SAINT JOHN. 139 

During the spring of 1818, the first pine logs 
were brought down the Saint John from above 
Grand Falls ; and it was in this year that citizens of 
the United States first began to assert territorial 
claims on the Madawaska and Upper Saint John. 

In June, 1819, about thirty-two hundred immi- 
grants, mostly disbanded soldiers, landed in Saint 
John. An emigrant register office was established 
here in October of that year ; and for some years 
after that time the number of immigrants who annu- 
ally came to Saint John was large. It was the 
beginning of a period of great commercial pros- 
perity, of abnormal growth, which well-nigh ended 
in utter ruin. 

On the 26th March, 1820, the Bank of New Bruns- 
wick was established. This institution, after an 
interval of fifty-five years, still exists, with greatly 
increased capital and augmented prosperity ; and 
its impregnable vaults saved many a man's fortune 
in the last great fire. The trade of Saint John was 
increasing so fast, that, in October of this same 
year, there were about a hundred square-rigged 
vessels in Saint John Harbor. In 1822 the first 
cargo of deals was sent to England. 

In f 824 there was a great fire in Saint John, which 
destroyed much property. In this year, which was 
one of great inflation and supposititious prosperity, a 



140 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

steamer was started to ply between Saint John and 
Passamaquoddy. In this year the first census was 
taken, and the population of the Province was 
found to be 74,176. The population of Saint John 
County at this time was 12,907. 

In March, 1826, a great and destructive fire took 
place in Indiantown, a suburb of Saint John. The 
year 1826 was a sickly one in Saint John, and, in a 
financial point of view, the most disastrous the city 
has ever known. Hundreds were ruined by the 
re-action in England after the speculative years 
1824 and 1825 ; and much colonial timber was sold 
for less than it had ^ cost to convey it across the 
Atlantic. It was long before Saint John recovered 
from the disasters of 1826. In 1827 steam navi- 
gation between Saint John and Digby was com- 
menced, and has been continued to the present 
time. In December, 1828, the Court-House on 
King's Square was completed. 

In October, 1834, cholera broke out in Saint 
John ; and boats for Fredericton were ordered to 
stop at the short ferry for inspection. Nov. 8 
there were 103 cases of cholera in this city, and 
had been 47 deaths. In this year a census of the 
province was taken, and the population of Saint 
John County ascertained to be 20,668. 

In 1835 an act to incorporate the Saint John 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF SAINT JOHN. 141 

Bridge Company was passed. The object was the 
erection of a bridge over the falls. The corporat- 
ors named in the act were B. L. Peters, Ralph 
M. Jarvis, Nehemiah Merritt, John Robertson, 
James Peters, jun., James Hendricks, David Hat- 
field, Robert W. Crookshank, Robert Rankin, R. 
F. Hazen, E. L. Jarvis, Charles Simonds, E. B. 
Chandler, William Crane, Hugh Johnston, Thomas 
Wier, John W. Weldon, and Jedediah Slason. 
The capital stock of the company was to consist of 
£20,000. 

On the 13th January, 1837, a great calamity befell 
Saint John, nearly the whole of the business part of 
the city being burned down. The number of houses 
destroyed was 115, and the damage to property was 
estimated at .£250,000. On April 30 of the same 
3^ear, steam navigation on the Saint John took a 
decided advance. The steamer " Novelty" reached 
Woodstock, being the first steamer that succeeded 
in ascending the Meductic Rapids. On May 20, the 
provincial banks all suspended specie payment, in 
sympathy with the money-panic which overwhelmed 
America at this time. On Aug. 7, the bridge struc- 
ture over the falls, which the company above spoken 
of were erecting, fell, and killed seven persons. 
This year was signalized by troubles in Lower 
Canada ; and, in consequence, the Forty-third Regi- 



142 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

ment was marclied overland from Fredericton to 
Quebec, leaving the former place on the 16th De- 
cember, and reaching their destination on the 28th 
December. The militia of York and Saint John 
Counties were called out at this time, and did gar- 
rison duty. On the 2d August, 1838, a dreadful 
calamity happened, by the upsetting of a boat in 
the falls, nineteen persons losing their lives. In 
this year the Saint John Mechanics' Institute was 
established ; Beverly Robinson, Esq., being its first 
president. 

The following year (1839) was memorable for the 
boundary disputes, bringing Great Britain and the 
United States to the verge of war. Saint John was 
intensely excited ; but war, fortunately, was averted. 
In August another terribly destructive &[:e took 
place in Saint John, by which property to the value 
of £200,000 was destroyed. The people of this city 
became seriously alarmed ; and at a special session 
of the legislature, held in September, an act for the 
better prevention of fires in Saint John was passed. 

On the 27th of May, 1840, Sir John Harvey laid 
the foundation-stone of the Saint John Mechanics' In- 
stitute building ; a structure inseparabl}' connected 
with the social and educational history of the place. 
On the 23d of July of this year, the Right Hon. P. C. 
Thompson, the governor-general of Canada, arrived 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF SAINT JOHN. 143 

at Saint John from Halifax, attended by Sir John 
Harvey. He was received here with much consid- 
eration. The population of Saint John County was 
found to be 32,957. The population of the city 
proper was 19,281. The increase since the census 
of 1834 had been very large. On the 17th of March, 
1841, there was another destructive fire in Saint 
John, at which four lives were lost. Public meetings 
were held about this time, to petition her Majesty 
against the removal of the duties on Baltic timber, 
by which colonial wood was protected. On the 17th 
of August of this year, the first battalion of the Saint 
John city militia, under the command of Col. Peters, 
was presented by his excellency the lieutenant-gov- 
ernor with a suit of colors. On Aug. 26, a calami- 
tous fire broke out in the suburban town of Portland, 
which destroyed sixty houses. The damage was 
estimated at .£30,000. Still the fire record of the 
year is not exhausted ; for on Nov. 15 there was 
another frightful fire in St. John, which destroyed 
the new market-house, and the building in which 
the public offices were. Many incendiary attempts 
were made at this time, and the public mind was 
highly excited in consequence. 

July 29, 1845, there was another great fire in Saint 
John, which destroyed forty buildings. On the 16th 
of October of that year, the foundation-stone of the 



144 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

cathedral was laid in Fredericton by Sir William 
Colebrooke. In this year the Saint John Gas-Light 
Company was incorporated ; and, on the evening of 
the 18th of September of the same year, gas was 
turned on for the first time. 

On the 27th of JFebruary, 1849, there was another 
great and destructive fire in Saint John, — on King 
Street and King Square, — and in the following 
month there was another great fire, in which about 
one hundred houses were burned. On the 12th of 
July of this year, riots with loss of life occurred in 
the city, growing out of religious differences. The 
28th of July was the date of a public meeting held 
at Saint John, to consider the depressed state of the 
Province. At this meeting the colonial association 
was organized. 

In 1851 another census of the Province was taken, 
by which it appeared that the population of Saint 
John was 22,745. Since that time its growth has 
been steady and substantial ; in 1861 its population 
numbered 27,317, and in 1871, 28,805. 

The reason of this apparent slowness of growth 
during the last decade is, that Saint John has in a 
measure overgrown its limits, and that any consider- 
able increase hereafter can never take place in the 
city proper, its bounds being too circumscribed to 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF SAINT JOHN. 145 

admit of a large population. Portland, and the 
parishes of Lancaster and Simonds, now are in- 
creased by the overflowing of the population of 
Saint John. The population of Saint John County 
in 1871 was 52,120. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE GEEAT FIEE. 

The Origin unknown. — The Sudden Appearance of the Flames. — 
The Spread of the Calamity. — The Fire Department. — The 
Streets and Wharves destroyed. — The Public Buildings. — The 
Shipping. — The Churches. — Explosions, Deaths, Accidents, &c. 

"VTOTHING is publicly known about the origin of 
-^ ^ the fire ; and the circumstances connected with 
it are such as to indicate that the combustion began 
by accident in some hidden corner. Perhaps a spark 
borne by the wind from some chimney, perhaps a 
lucifer match carelessly let fall where the pressure 
of foot or wind would grind it into ignition, and 
possibly some lover of mischief or yicious wretch 
intentionally, set the fire which resulted so disas- 
trously to the unoffending people. The ground 
facts upon which all the theories, speculations, and 
arguments must rest are simply these : viz., 1st, The 
fire began in a wooden building on York Point Slip. 
2d, When discovered, it was burning rapidly in 
large bundles of hay. 3d, The breeze was so 

146 



THE GREAT FIRE. 147 

fresh and strong that the smallest fire in such a 
place would instantly leap into a conflagration. 
How rapid was the increase of the fire, may be un- 
derstood when we state that Avithin one hundred and 
thirty seconds after the alarm was sounded Engine 
No. 3 was throwing water upon the ignited buildings. 
Other engines followed immediately ; but, before they 
could find a suitable location to play upon the flames, 
the conflagration by means of sparks and heat had 
spread to a score of wooden structures. " The Saint 
John Daily Telegraph," in its first edition published 
after the fire thus described the progress of the great 
calamity : — 

" The fire was first discovered in a building owned 
by Mr. Fairweather on the south of York Point Slip, 
next to McLauchlan's boiler-shop ; and to the latter 
building the flames had spread before the firemen 
had reached the scene. The engines arrived, and did 
their best to stop the flames ; but all their efforts 
were in vain. Nothing could be done. The flames 
then spread to the various buildings on Hare's 
Wharf, which were also quickly consumed ; and be- 
fore the fire could be checked it broke out with a 
roar into Smyth Street, carrying every thing before 
it. From there the flames spread into Drury Lane 
and Mill Street, following that into Dock Street, 
taking both sides. Ere this, however, the rear of the 



148 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

London House and adjacent buildings had been at- 
tacked by the fire. 

" The Portland engine and firemen, and a Carleton 
engine, soon came to the relief of the city men. 

" One engine had been stationed at the corner of 
Mill and Union Streets, while the men with branches 
were down on Union Street, opposite Drury Lane. 
The buildings were a mass of flames at the end of 
Smyth Street and Drury Lane ; and, while the work- 
ers were vainly endeavoring to have the fire end 
there, a momentary gale took the flames across 
Union Street to the opposite houses, and then they 
receded ; but their touch had been fatal, and in less 
than five minutes the erections were doomed to 
destruction. Both sides of the street were soon in 
the grasp of the devouring element ; and the men 
lingered so long in their struggle to save the build- 
ings that at last they were obliged to drop their 
branch-pipes, and run up the street, after which they 
dragged the hose after them. Another lot of men 
were working at the foot of Union Street, and by 
placing boards in front of their faces managed to 
battle with the flames until their clothing became 
singed. 

" When it became evident that the business part 
of the city was in the greatest peril, there was a great 
rush to the Bank of New Brunswick and its vaults. 



THE GREAT FIRE. . 149 

Bankers brought great heavy boxes of specie, and 
immense packages of notes, also great numbers of 
boxes of bonds, and bills of exchange, and office 
secretaries; many others besides bankers did so'; and 
Mr. Schofield, who was in charge, kindly placed the 
use of the vaults at their disposal. The use of the 
cellars and other parts of the bank was also per- 
mitted. At that time the bank, which had taken 
most precautions against fire in regard to its front, 
was threatened in the rear ; and whether it would be 
able to fight the enemy was doubtful. 

" It was heart-rending to witness sick, infirm, and 
aged persons, being dragged through the streets in 
search of a place of safety, which it was very diffi- 
cult to find. Women and children wept freely, 
and even full-grown men could not restrain their 
emotions. Streams of blood, the results of injuries, 
marked the faces of several men; and others had 
received bruises and been maimed in various ways. 
Many men and women might be seen, utterly 
exhausted with the fatigue and the heat, which 
became insufferable, dragging bedding, pieces of 
furniture, and other articles, through the streets ; a 
vain task in many cases, as the new places of refuge 
sought out often proved as unsafe as those that were 
deserted. 

" Queen and King Squares and other open spaces 



150 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

were speedily piled with bedding, chairs, tables, 
and other valuables. Then women and children 
gathered to the same spots, partly to try and watch 
over their property, and partly because they knew 
no other places of safety. The burning of the Bell- 
Tower, the flight of cinders in all directions, and the 
danger of its falling on those who were near it, 
produced an unpleasant sensation on the square. 

'' It was somewhat disheartening to the band of 
workers to learn that a building on Main Street, a 
■mile away, had caught fire from the cinders that 
were hurled away from the scene of the confla- 
gration. This was totally unexpected, and the 
people were of course not prepared for it: so the 
flames went, no one being able to offer any resist- 
ance ; and house after house was razed, while the 
occupants had only an opportunity of saving their 
effects. 

" Proceeding along Smyth Street in a southerly 
direction, the fire soon reached Nelson Street, and 
then Robertson's Place ; then extended to Robert- 
son's Wharf, and then up the South Wharf. As it 
gained Nelson Street on the south, it there met the 
flames coming up that street ; and the combination 
made a terrific heat, that could not be borne by 
those who were in the vicinity, attempting to save 
property: indeed, so rapidly were they overtaken 



THE GREAT FIRE. 151 

that it was with difficulty many could get out any 
thing besides their books. 

" Allied with the strong wind from the north-west, 
it did not take long for the entire wharf to be in a 
blaze. 

" Half a dozen wood-boats were at the head of the 
market slip, and at the end of the wharves about the 
same number of schooners. Before the fire had 
assumed formidable shape on the North Wharf, the 
men on the vessels began to pour pails of water on 
the decks. The water was low just then, and some- 
thing like this was necessary to extinguish the sparks 
that were continually showered down on them. One 
thing in their favor was, that the tide was rising ; 
but the fire proved an earlier visitor, and those at 
the head of the slip were, in a quarter of an hour, 
on fire in so many places that it was impossible for 
each outbreak to receive attention. 

" Before the vessels had been well on fire, the flames 
passed above their masts, forming a bridge of fire 
over the slip, that soon afforded a stepping-stone to 
the shops on South Wharf. Not one of these west 
of Ward Street was capable of withstanding the 
intense heat and sparks, all being of wood. They 
went down as if felled by a hurricane, the schooners 
in front having been hauled out to a place of safety. 
Many of the occupants of the stores were off help- 



152 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

ing their unfortunate brother merchants, and some 
arrived just in time to save their books ; others were 
just enabled to witness the destruction of all their 
stock. 

" Some of the embers lodged in the steeple of 
Trinity Church ; and with nothing to save it — for 
the fire was so high as to be almost beyond reach — 
the fire was left to pursue its own way. As the 
news spread that some wooden houses in Horsfield 
Street, as well as others on Duke Street (near the 
Victoria Hotel), were on fire, thousands were alarmed. 
The cause of this was that the wind had carried to 
the rear buildings on these streets, large cinders 
which kindled a flame instantly. 

*' Fear gave way to terror as it was learned that 
this fire was spreading north, south, east, and west, 
— to Germain, Charlotte, Duke, and Horsfield Streets. 
Not an engine to be had, and every thing going down 
before the unrelenting fire. A building on Charlotte 
Street had hardly become a prey to the flames, when 
others on either side followed suit. In half an hour 
all but the Germain-street side of the square was 
in ashes. 

" The Victoria Hotel and St. Andrew's Church 
were in great danger ; and the hotel guests, as well as 
the employees, began to make preparations for seek- 
ing new quarters. But where they were to go, could 



THE GREAT FIRE. 153 

be more easily asked than answered. Should the 
house take fire, as it was quite evident it would, 
there would hardly be any safety on that street ; and, 
as the destroying element was pursuing a south-west 
course, their only alternative was to seek refuge in 
the King's Square. Very little time was given 
them to collect their valuables ; and, in the majority 
of cases, they had to leave with a scanty wardrobe. 
About the same time St. Andrew's Church took fire, 
and it did not stand long. 

"Adjoining the church was the two-story brick 
building occupied as a tailor-shop in the lower story ; 
and Beacon, Pioneer, and Siloam Lodges of Odd 
Fellows, as well as Millicete Encampment of that 
order, had the upper flat. Some of the members 
managed to get into the building, and save most of 
the regalia and paraphernalia, prior to that building 
being destroyed. 

" The buildings at the southern corner of Dock and 
Union Streets, and on the opposite corner, caught 
almost simultaneously. To say that the fire raged 
fiercely here, would but too faintly describe the 
terrible manner in which it kept on, unheeding the 
streams of water directed upon it. The engine was 
obliged to shift its position from this quarter, the 
heat being most terrific. There was danger, too, of 
the hose being burned, and of all things the preser- 



154 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

vation of that was most essential. The engine was 
taken down Dock Street; but it seemed as if the fire 
did not wish to part company, and kept up a rapid 
pursuit. It also sped along the western part of Mill 
Street, crossing over to the opposite side, and darting 
with lightning-like rapidity upon Messrs. Rankine 
& Sons' biscuit-manufactory, then following onward 
towards North Street. 

" From the South Wharf the flames entered into 
Ward Street, and extended to Peters's Wharf in a 
remarkably short space of time, carrying every thing 
before them. Then they proceeded to Water Street, 
and from thence soon made their way to the south- 
ern part of the Market Square, making a jump up to 
Prince William Street. At this stage a wooden 
house on Canterbury Street took the flames, and 
the Church-street buildings were soon imperilled. 
Then the flames advanced to Princess and King 
Streets, and on Germain Street, in front of Trinity 
Church, began to take the fire very rapidly. 

" The Academy of Music, a splendid building, was 
also destroyed. The two stores were occupied, and 
the Knights of Pythias had a hall in the front up 
stairs. A great many of the actors who have been 
playing under Mr. Nannary's engagement lost por- 
tions of their wardrobe, and all the scenery was 
burned. Wheu the fire had reached the Market 



THE GREAT FIRE. 155 

Square, and had obtained a strong hold on the many 
fine buildings thereon situated, several explosions 
were heard coming from one of the hardware-stores. 
They caused a general scattering of the people 
about, and the reports reached as far up as the Court 
House. 

" The fire entered King Street on the western 
side (from Germain and Canterbury Streets) ; ex- 
tended northerly on Charlotte Street, to the Saint 
John Hotel, burning the Trinity School in its course ; 
went up the south side of King's Square, and levelled 
to the ground the Lyceum, destroying the marble- 
works of Mr. S. P. Osgood and Messrs. Milligan ; 
proceeded to Mr. Robertson's stable, across to Saint 
Malachi's Hall, up Leinster Street, and then back to 
King Street east; down nearly to Pitt Street from 
there ; and by our latest advices it threatens to pro- 
ceed to the bank on Crown Street, but will not pass 
to the northern side of King Street east. All build- 
ings south of King Street have been burned, the 
exceptions being rare. 

" In the other part of the city the conflagration 
was stopped about North Street, having extended as 
far up Union Street as Messrs. J. & T. Robinson's. 
The Bank of British North America was saved ; the 
police office and station opposite were burned. 

" At an early part of the day the electric tele- 



156 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

graph office was burnt down, and its valuable bat- 
teries and apparatus destroyed. The office is now 
established at the Intercolonial Railway Station. 
Some of its wires are cut off; and last evening the 
operators were mainly employed in answering mes- 
sages of inquiry as to the safety of relatives and 
friends, or transmitting in very general terms the 
tragic story of deaths and disasters. 

" A great quantity of the goods saved fell into the 
hands of thieves, who hung around like vultures, 
eager to avail themselves of any opportunity that 
afforded, to carry off what they could lay their hands 
on. Policeman Ring discovered two men in the act 
of dividing a lot of clothing and other articles which 
they had carried from a house, and stopped them 
in short order. 

" The Ballast Wharf is covered with thousands of 
people, anxious to escape by water ; so is the rail- 
way track, and grounds around the track between 
the Ballast Wharf and. Courtenay Bay. 

" The office in Carleton was used last night for the 
reception and transmission of mails. The evening 
mails were made up and sent off from there on time. 
This arrangement is only temporary, and the post- 
master expects to have a city office provided to-day. 

" The following newspaper offices, with their plant 
and stock, were completely swept away : ' The Free- 



THE GREAT FIRE. 157 

man,' ' The Evening Globe,' ' The Daily Telegraph,' 
' The Daily News,' ' The Watchman,' ' The Reli- 
gious Intelligencer.' The ' Globe,' ' Telegraph,' 
'News,' 'Intelligencer,' and 'Watchman' had job- 
offices attached. 

"Messrs. Chabb & Co. lost their large job-office, 
book-bindery, &c. ; Messrs. McMillan lost their job- 
office building, &c. ; Mr. Knodell lost his job-office ; 
Mr. Roger Hunter lost his job-office. 

" The following persons are reported to have lost 
their lives in the fire : Benjamin Williams, Germain 
Street ; Harold Gilbert, near Victoria Hotel ; Wil- 
liam McNeill, of James Adams & Co.'s establish- 
ment; Garret Cotter, of Mr. James S. May's estab- 
lishment ; Hugh McGovern, of Straight Shore. Two 
men whose names are unknown are reported run 
over and killed. The body of an unknown man was 
found on Prince William Street at four o'clock this 
morning. 

" There were many persons hurt ; accidents were 
quite common, and we regret to say in particular 
among the brave firemen. 

" During the entire day, teams of every description 
could be seen loaded with household effects ; while 
others less fortunate carried their little all in their 
arms, — removing the goods to places where they 
might obtain temporary shelter, for a permanent 



158 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN, 

abiding-place was an impossibility. A few unoccu- 
pied liousfes in Portland were quickly taken; and 
those who were fortunate enough to possess vacant 
apartments in the city were besieged with appli- 
cants for the rooms. It was hard in all cases to 
refuse the urgent appeals from the unfortunate peo- 
ple ; and there were frequent cases of occupants 
of houses overcrowding themselves in order to afford 
accommodations to the distressed. 

" It was Mr. John H. Parks, one of the directors, 
who had the presence of mind and the energy to 
rescue three ladies from the Old Ladies' Home. He 
got a carriage in due time, got the ladies into a tug- 
boat, and landed them safely in Carleton. Their 
deliverance from death was, under God, due to him; 
and the hearts of the ladies are filled with joy and 
gratitude. 

" Mrs. Trepagle had left the Home to assist her sis- 
ters, Mrs. Reed, and another lady sister. They all 
perished together. Mrs. Reed was the mother of 
the ex-mayor, Thomas Reed, Esq. 

" The following are among the list of public build- 
ings, &c., burnt : — 

"Post Office, Bank of New Brunswick, City Build- 
ing, Custom House ; Maritime Bank Building, in 
which are the bank, that of Montreal and Nova 
ScQtia, office School Trustees, &c.; Bank of Nova 



THE GREAT FIRE. 159 

Scotia Building; Academy of Music, in which was 
the Knights of Pj^thias Hall ; Victoria Hotel ; Odd 
Fellows' Hall; No. 1 Engine House; Orange Hall, 
King Street; Temperance Hall, King Street, east; 
Dramatic Lyceum ; Victoria School House ; Temple 
of Honor, Wiggin's Building; Barnes Hotel; the 
Royal Hotel ; Saint John Hotel ; Acadia Hotel ; the 
Brunswick House ; Bay View Hotel ; International 
Hotel ; Wiggin's Orphan Asylum. 

" The churches burnt are Trinity ; Saint Andrew's 
Church, Germain Street ; Methodist, Germain Street ; 
Baptist Church, Germain Street; Christian Church, 
Duke Street; Saint James Church; Leinster-street 
Baptist ; the Centenary ; Carmarthen-street Mission 
(Methodist) ; Saint David's Church ; Reformed Pres- 
byterian Church ; Sheffield-street Mission House." 



CHAPTER XL 

SCENES ATTENDING THE CONFLAGEATION. 

Similarity to the Fire in London. — The Description of that Calamity 
applied to this. — Scenes of Confusion. —Acts of Heroism.— 
Effect of the Fire upon Men's Natural Dispositions. — Thieves. — 
Deaths by Fire. — Sheltering a Homeless People. — All Things 
Common. 

rr^HE afternoon and evening of that awful day 
"^ presented scenes of confusion such as few cities 
have seen since the great fire in London, in 1666, 
which this disaster so much resembled. It is rather 
surprising to find that the territory burned over in 
Saint John was one-half as large as that covered by 
the great conflagration in London, and that propor- 
tionately the fire in Saint John becomes by far the 
greatest desolation. How similar were the scenes, 
and how much unchanged human nature is, will be 
instructively apparent when we compare the descrip- 
tions of the destruction in London, with the annihi- 
lation in Saint John. In the volume published in 
London in 1722, containing an account of the Great 

160 



SCENES ATTENDING THE CONFLAGRATION. 161 

Plague in London, by Daniel Defoe, an account of the 
fire is added, wherein the event is described in a 
manner so applicable to this, that it will have a double 
interest here ; and we insert it with that view. 

" A raQ:inQ: east wind fomented it to an incredible 
degree, and in a moment raised the fire from the 
bottom to the tops of the houses, and scattered pro- 
digious flakes in all places, which mounted high in 
the air, as if heaven and earth were threatened with 
the same conflagration. The fury soon became in- 
superable against the arts of men, and the power of 
engines ; and beside the dismal scenes of flames, ruin, 
and desolation, there appeared the most killing sight, 
in the distracted looks of the citizens, the wailings of 
miserable women, the cries of poor children and de- 
crepit old people, with all the marks of confusion and 
despair. No man, that had the sense of human mis- 
eries, could unconcernedly behold the dismal ravage 
and destruction. 

" The fire got the mastery, and burnt dreadfully by 
the force of tlie wind ; it spread quickly, and went 
on with such force and rage, overturning all so furi- 
ously, that the whole city was brought into jeopardy 
and desolation. There was a tumultuous hurrying 
about the streets toward the places that burned, and 
more tumultuous hurrying upon the spirits of those 
that sat still, and had only the notice of the ear of 



162 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

the strange and quick spreading of the fire. Now 
goods were moved hastily from the lower parts of the 
city; and the people began to retire and draw up- 
ward. Yet some hopes were retained that the fire 
would be extinguished, especially by those who lived 
in remote parts : they could scarce imagine that the 
fire a mile distant could reach their houses. All 
means to stop it proved ineffectual ; and the wind was 
so high that flakes of fire and burning matter were 
carried across several streets, and spread the confla- 
gration everywhere. 

" But the evening drew on ; and now the fire was 
more visible and dreadful. Instead of the black cur- 
tains of the night that used to spread over the city, 
now the curtains were yellow ; the smoke that arose 
from the burning part seemed like so much flame in 
the night, which being blown upon the other parts by 
the wind, the whole city, at some distance, seemed to 
be on fire. Now hope began to sink, and a general 
consternation seized upon the spirits of the people. 
Little sleep was taken in London during that night. 
Some were at work to quench the fire, others en- 
deavored to stop its course by pulling down houses ; 
but all to no purpose. If it were a little allayed or 
put to a stand in some places, it quickly recruited and 
recovered its force ; it leaped and mounted, and made 
the more furious onset, drove back all opposers. Some 



SCENES ATTENDING THE CONFLAGRATION. 163 

were on their knees, in the night, pouring out tears 
before the Lord, interceding for poor London in the 
day of its calamity ; yet none could prevail to reverse 
the doom which had gone forth against the city. The 
fire had received its commission, and all attempts to 
hinder it were in vain. . . . 

"Then, then, the city did shake, indeed! and the 
inhabitants did tremble. They flew away in great 
amazement from their houses, lest the flames should 
devour them. Rattle ! rattle ! rattle ! was the noise 
which the fire struck upon the ear round about, as if 
there had been a thousand iron chariots beating upon 
the stones; and, if you turned your eyes to the open- 
ing of the streets where the fire was come, you might 
see in some places whole. streets at once in flames, 
that issued forth as if they had so many forges from 
the opposite windows, and which, folding together, 
united in one great volume throughout the whole 
street; and then you might see the houses tumble, 
tumble, tumble, from one end of the street to 
another, with a great crash, leaving the foundations 
open to the view of the heavens. 

" Fearfulness and terror surprised all the citizens 
of London ; men were in a miserable hurry. Full of 
distraction and confusion, they had not the command 
of their own thoughts to reflect and inquire what 
was fit and proper to be done. It would have 



164 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

grieved tlie heart of an unconcerned person to have 
seen the rueful looks, the pale cheeks, tears trickling 
down from the eyes (when the greatness of sorrow 
and amazement could give leave for such a vent), 
the smiting of the breast, the wringing of hands; 
to hear the sighs and groans, the doleful and weep- 
ing speeches of the distressed citizens, when they 
were bringing forth their wives (some from their 
child-bed) and their little ones (some from their sick- 
beds) out of their houses, and sending them into 
the fields with their goods. . . . The streets were 
crowded with people and carts to carry what goods 
they could get out. They who were most active, 
and had most money to pay carriage at exorbitant 
prices, saved much : the rest lost all. Carts, drays, 
coaches, and horses, as many as could have entrance 
into the city, were laden ; and any money was 
given for help, — five, ten, twenty, thirty pounds, 
for a cart to bear forth to the fields some choice 
things which were ready to be consumed ; and some 
of the countrymen had the conscience to accept the 
prices which the citizens offered in their extremity. 
Casks of wine and oil and other commodities were 
tumbled along ; and the owners shoved as much as 
they could toward the gates. Every one became a 
porter to himself; and scarcely a. back, either of man 
or woman, but had a burden on it in the streets. It 



SCENES ATTENDING THE CONFLAGRATION. 165 

was very melancholy to see such throngs of poor citi- 
zens coming in and going forth from the unburnt 
parts, heavily laden with portions of their goods, but 
more heavy with grief and sorrow of heart, so that 
it is wonderful they did not quite sink down under 
their burdens." 

How surprisingly accurate is that description when 
applied to the great fire in Saint John, will be seen 
by reading the following extract from the Saint John 
" Globe " of July 12, which contained an excellent 
account of the whole destruction: — 

" The scene as viewed from the heights of Carleton, 
where the situation could be taken in at one view, 
was magnificent and saddening. Before the specta- 
tor was a vast sea of flame, through which the ruined 
and broken walls and windowless gables gaped star- 
ing and pitiful ; while here and there stood out some 
noble edifice like the Wiggin's Orphan Asylum, silent, 
massive, but succumbing at last to the fiery furnace 
that raged around it. The clouds of smoke filled the 
whole heavens, and blackened the sky with their 
horrid forms. Even amid these harrowing sights and 
sounds prevailing, one scene of beauty stood out 
grandly magnificent. That old landmark of by- 
gone years, the Bell-Tower, — the subject of news- 
paper ridicule and individual satire, — became envel- 
oped in flame. When denuded of its outer covering, 



166 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

the timbers showed a burning beauty beyond descrip- 
tion. It had been built solidly, and offered long 
resistance to its overpowering foe, — the foe of whom 
it had sounded so many an alarm of coming danger, 
— but now struggled helplessly and unaided in its 
embrace ; and, when corner-post and cross-tie and 
studding burned with a clear white brilliancy, it ap- 
peared as if inwrapped in a yast illumination. If in 
life it was plain, in death it showed forth beautiful. 
In the front lay the harbor slumbering peacefully 
(for- as the night wore away the wind died out), but 
lighted up with the red glare of the burning city ; 
whilst every mast and spar, shroud and line, of the 
tall ships stood doubly distinct from the red glare 
behind. How powerless indeed seemed man in a 
contest with one of the great elements of nature ! 
how vain his works, how defenceless his condition ! 

" It required, however, personal contact with the 
burning districts to realize the awful horrors of the 
scene. When the houses around Queen Square were 
on fire, and the goods placed on the square were 
ablaze, a perfect sea of fire rolled around the spec- 
tator, escape from which appeared to be impossible. 
In the vicinity of the gas-house and around its high 
fences, bedding, furniture, and household effects were 
piled up in immense masses ; while grief-stricken 
groups silently stood around, or, yielding to their 



SCENES ATTENDING THE CONFLAGRATION. 167 

emotions, screamed in terror at the circumstances in 
which they were placed. Death is said to be the 
great leveller, but for the moment fire took its place ; 
and rich and poor were placed in the same circum- 
stances, were subject to the same privations, and in- 
volved in the same ruin. People fled by, bravely 
struggling to save some trunk or bundle which the 
pursuing heat compelled them to drop, or which 
some living spark soon set fire in their hands. Some, 
despairing of saving any thing, came out of their 
houses, and locked the doors, and left all their goods 
to the fate which soon overtook them. 

" Men and women, overcome by fatigue and suffer- 
ing from hunger and thirst, turned into alleys and 
by-ways, and slept until some friendly hand aroused 
them from the danger into which they were falling. 
In the throes of that awful agony which only woman 
feels, on the public street, a woman gave birth to a 
child ; and the wall of fire follov/ed up all, driving the 
unfortunate sufferers from street to street, until they 
took refuge on the very edge of the sea, such as could 
get into boats or scows or steamboats being taken to 
a place of safety. It was a night of anxiety, of terror, 
of horrors : yet the morning sun rose upon a scene of 
great beauty. . . . The scene on the second morning 
after the fire, as the sun came up from the east, was 
one of extreme misery. The tall chimneys looming 



168 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

up in the gray of the morning were slowly gilded 
by the long level rays thrown parallel to the plane 
of the horizon ; and this added to their grim wretch- 
edness, making them a mockery of brightness when 
contrasted with the wreck of which they were so 
conspicuous a part. Scarcely a soul was seen on the 
desolate streets ; but here and there amid the ruins 
was some solitary figure digging amid the still heated 
dehris of a dwelling, in search perhaps of some long- 
cherished treasure now, alas ! gone forever." 

From three o'clock in the afternoon, when the old 
Bell-Tower trembled with the shock of the alarm, 
until the early dawn of the next day, there was a 
confused hurrying to and fro, and a continuous rattle 
of carts and wagons hastening to the windward of the 
fire with the precious relics of two thousand homes. 
Many a load of valuables was moved from Dock 
Street and from its vicinity to Princess Street, then 
again taken away to Sydney Street, and at last burned 
after another remove to Main Street. Men stowed 
away all the property they possessed in the house of 
some friend far removed from the conflagration, and 
confidently went to the work of helping their neigh- 
bors do the same thing ; when, lo ! the next hour, when 
they sought the place on some errand, they saw only 
flames, ruins, coals, ashes. 

One gentleman had been at work saving his goods, 



SCENES ATTENDING THE CONFLAGRATION. 1G9 

and in his haste had torn his clothing ; so, when the 
goods were safely deposited in the stable attached 
to a friend's dwelling, he thought he would go around 
to his house, and get another coat. Imagine his sur- 
prise when he found his way blocked while several 
streets away from his house, and when he was told 
by an acquaintance that his house had been burned 
more than an hour, and his- family could probably be 
found in the old burying-ground, or in the fields the 
other side of the bay. 

Others carried away from their dwellings large 
bundles of goods upon their backs, and reached a 
place of safety, only to find that they had been car- 
rying a bonfire which had half consumed their cargo. 
• There were almost innumerable instances of hero- 
ism and self-sacrifice, — too many by far to be indi- 
vidually recorded ; and any attempt to make their 
names historical would be successful only in belittling 
the whole matter, inasmuch as the number, known 
to any one writer would be very insignificant when' 
compared with the whole. Little boys, in absence 
of father or employer, performed surprising feats in 
saving the families, the stock in trade, or the books 
of account. Small girls led their blind parents, with 
thorough presence of mind, through the hurricanes 
and showers of fire, shielding their charge by meth- 
ods mature men might have overlooked. There were 



170 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

wives whose husbands, and daughters whose fathers, 
were sick in bed, or crippled, but who, with a show 
of strength bom of desperation, took the invalids 
bodily in their arms, and hastened with them to a 
place of safety. There were firemen, who, in their 
zeal to save human lives and their neighbors' property, 
clambered upon the dizzy edges of roofs and towers, 
and held their position until they seemed to be stand- 
ing in a lake of flame. No fault was ever found with 
the heroic men of the Fire Department who battled 
with that calamity. Although their efficient chief, 
who for so many years had directed their movements, 
was absent from the city, yet so thorough was their 
discipline, and so earnest was their desire to be of 
service, that all their work was done with most com- 
mendable promptness and precision. But what could 
four steam fire-engines do against the whirlwinds of 
flame which found such combustible material on 
which to feed ? Certain it is, however, that had not 
the firemen fought so bravely, and had not the engines 
worked so successfully, there would not have been a 
place of refuge left in Saint John or the adjacent 
city of Portland. 

How such a dire calamity develops and strengthens 
the tendencies of human nature ! Like the camps 
and sieges of war, the excitement and the abrogation 
of civil law in such a time call out the best or the 



SCENES ATTENDING THE CONFLAGRATION. 171 

worst features of human character. During the prog- 
ress of that disaster there were exhibitions of affect- 
ing self-sacrifice, of martyr-like bravery, by men who 
had been estimated by the community as selfish, mo- 
rose, and unkind. Enemies, whose social contests had 
been long and bitter, when touched by the fire vied 
with each other in doing for one another deeds of the 
noblest kindness ; and they will never quarrel again. 
Women who hated each other, and were for years 
estranged by the tongues of foolish gossip, sat to- 
gether by the tombs that night, and in mutual woe 
became mutual friends. Men left their property 
they might have saved, and hastened to the assist- 
ance of the aged and the infirm; and in countless 
ways did the people perform for each other acts of 
charity and friendship. 

In the other direction the development was not so 
marked ; but there were men who stole that night 
who had never been known to steal before. They 
may have cheated children, and may have taken 
little advantages of innocent friends in order to get 
a penny more than they had honestly earned ; but 
the devils that chafed witliin had been kept hid from 
the public gaze until this resistless opportunity came. 
Thieves there were in almost every street ; and many 
valuable bales and packages wrongfully found their 
way into by-nooks, caves of the mountains, and 



172 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

obscure dwellings, which afterwards were discovered 
and returned by the officers of the law. In that 
dark interval, when the statutes of the land were 
held in abeyance, and the few policemen could not 
enforce the simplest ordinance, the good men became 
better, and the bad men worse ; seemingly reversing 
the statement of Shakespeare, that 

" One touch of nature makes the whole world kin." 

For here the touch of the law had kept them kin, 
and it was the touch of natural freedom that made 
them enemies. But the disposition to rob and steal 
was not so .prevalent or so malicious as that which 
was developed in many large fires in other conti- 
nental cities. There were several attempts by incen- 
diaries to kindle the houses which remained ; but they 
were not so persistent as they were in Chicago and 
Quebec. 

One old lady, so aged and infirm that she had 
long been assisted and cared for by the kindness 
of friends, was not willing to be saved alone. Her 
sister, who had been her companion for threescore 
years, was in danger ; and she felt that she must go 
and warn her. The sister lived near by, and the old 
lady started briskly to her aid. She would not leave 
her infirm relative to die alone. Beyond this nothing 
is known of them. One old lady who resided in the 



SCENES ATTENDING THE CONFLAGRATION. 173 

same place wandered away, and was burned in the 
street, as already related in tracing the steps of 
David Tournay. But how these two aged sisters 
clung together, or how they called for help, and 
prayed for deliverance, men will never know ; for the 
fiendish flames came and howled and danced, the 
whirlwinds growled, the smoke darkened the win- 
dows, and the great tide of fire rolled on and in- 
gulfed them. Like Saul and Jonathan, they " were 
lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death 
they were not divided." 

Others there were to whom death came that night ; 
but how, or just the hour, or where, their weeping 
friends cannot tell. Of the . score or more who were 
victims in the calamity, and whose names are known, 
there are but a few whose death was seen, and its 
full details known. 

There was an uncertainty connected with the 
movements of almost every person; and no one 
could safely calculate upon meeting their friends 
even at an appointed place. The frightened ref- 
ugees sought the first shelter which was offered them, 
some going to the homes of friends, some going into 
the fields, some on board of th"fe vessels, and some 
fleeing far into the country. The people whose 
houses were untouched — and how few they were ! 
— opened their doors to all who came, until bed- 



174 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

chambers, halls, drawing-rooms, kitchens, and cellars 
were crowded with people and their hastily depos- 
ited property. They had ever been known as an 
hospitable people ; but here was an extra call upon 
their sympathy and regard, which made the few 
who escaped with their property doubly generous, 
although there appears no long roll of contributors 
to the relief fund by the people of Saint John and 
the towns which environ it. Yet no one in all the 
swollen list of givers from abroad made more gener- 
ous donations than did the people of the stricken 
community : they literally divided with each other. 
Every place where a bed could be placed was occu- 
pied ; and again and again were the relays of vis- 
itors invited to the family tables. Mistresses became 
kitchen-maids, servants became hosts; and for a 
while the homes that were left were honest exam- 
ples of a community of brethren of the apostolic 
order, wherein all things were common. Yet there 
were many who could not even then find shelter, so 
scarce were the accommodations when every door 
was opened. 



CHAPTER XII. 

AFTER THE FIRE. 

The Ruins. — Obliteration of Streets. — Appearance of the Squares. 

— Exodus of the People. — Establishment of Business Quarters. 

— Absence of Food. — Danger of Starvation. 

r 1 1HE return of the sun on the morning which suc- 
-^ ceeded the fire was a dismal one indeed to the 
houseless people, although to the rest of the world 
it was as bright and fair as usual. The site of the 
city was covered with ruins of all heights and 
shapes ; some standing as firm as the rock on which 
they were founded, while some toppled and wavered, 
ready to come crashing to the ground on the slightest 
occasion. Great heaps of living coals showed where 
piles of lumber or high buildings had been; and 
from myriads of indescribable mounds and crags of 
iron, brick, stone, and mortar, little puffs of smoke 
curled upward about tall chimneys, and united in the 
great cloud which hung overhead. The oldest inhab- 
itant could not for a time locate the streets, so 
thickly covered with rubbish and ashes was the 

175 



176 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

whole area of two hundred acres. At the wharves 
only the burnt stumps of piles remained, to show 
the line where vessels had so often deposited their 
cargoes. At the custom-house and post-office, only 
an imposing front of stone remained, with window- 
apertures, marred and cracked with the heat. 

The sites of great warehouses, old churches, and 
costly residences, were lost in the general ruin ; and, 
for a long time after the heat had so far subsided as 
to permit passage, it was difficult to find the corners 
of streets, or tell without measurement just where 
any certain house had stood. Such buildings as the 
Victoria Hotel, Orphan Asylum, and schoolhouses — 
grand even in ruin — were soon recognized ; and, with 
them as landmarks, the bewildered citizens groped to 
the hearthstones they had so hopefully left for the 
store or the shop on the previous day. 

Ruin, ruin, everywhere ! All that was valuable 
was gone. As if in derision, the fire had left lucifer 
matches unburned in smoking heaps of ashes; and 
huge supplies of coal in cargoes of hundreds of tons 
were untouched, while the hotel or church they were 
purchased to warm was beyond the need of any more 
heat. The whole peninsula was left in all its nat- 
ural deformity, save where the rocks had been hewn 
and blasted to make passable streets. A city must 
be founded anew upon these barren ledges. 



AFTER THE FIRE. Ill 

It was a sad sight. Even tlie stranger shed a 
silent tear as he wandered over unrecognizable 
masses of dehris^ and realized in a vague manner how 
the owners of those remains must feel. It was like 
looking upon the face of an unknown corpse. There 
was the evidence of past life, the certainty of there 
having been a death-struggle, and the probability 
that the dead had loving friends somewhere, who 
were weeping for him, and would not be comforted. 

Like veterans which singly have escaped the terrific 
conflicts of battle, the Hazen House, the court-house 
and jail, and the engine-house stood, scarred, be- 
grimed, and alone ; living reminders of the rage and 
destruction which had passed by them, leaving all hut 
them prostrate and ghastly in unsightly distortion. 

The collection of furniture, merchandise, crockery, 
glass-ware, carpets, trunks, and clothing, which had 
been hastily deposited in King's Square and the old 
burying-ground, began to move away, as destinations 
were secured for them by the owners. Lawyers se- 
cured apartments in retail stores ; physicians opened 
offices in rear kitchens ; while merchants accepted the 
first stable, loft, shed, dwelling, or shop that they 
could secure, and whatever was saved of the stocks 
in trade was advertised for sale from the strangest of 
corners, and the most obscure of streets and alleys. 
People set up housekeeping in rooms scarce large 



178 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

enough for a bed ; and all kinds of trades were car- 
ried on in back yards and house-cellars. Every thing 
which could be called a shelter, and hired for money, 
was at once taken; and rents went up to fabulous 
rates. 

Many of the houseless people who could not find 
shelter in the city sought quarters in the country ; 
and every available conveyance was brought into re- 
quisition to convey them to the farmhouses where 
they had secured accommodations. Yet this exodus 
left many in the city unprovided for, who blocked the 
halls and chambers of public and private business, 
and who were only given shelter at last, by means of 
tents and shanties hastily pitched on the squares and 
vacant lots. 

There were thousands of people in the city, or 
rather on the ruins of the city, that morning, who had 
lost every thing, and had no reason for telling where 
their dinner was to come from. It was an appalling 
spectacle, for to the horrors of the fire were now 
added the apprehensions of starvation. There was 
not food enough in the city, left by the fire, to keep 
the people three daj^s ; and of course that was in the 
hands of a few. The many saw before them severe 
and immediate suffering. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

EXTENT OF THE CALAMITY. 

Estimated Loss. — Great Extent of the Destruction in Pro'portion to 
the Size of the City. — Names of the Owners of Buildings. — 
Names of Occupants. — Business Firms burned out. — Roster of 
Loseis by Streets. — The Effect on the "Working Classes. — Sum- 
mary of the Property destroyed. 

A LTHOUGH the city of Saint Jolin covered so 
-^-^ large an area, yet, as we have already stated, 
it was not such a wealthy city as Chicago, Boston, 
or Montreal ; and hence the destruction, when stated 
in money, does not reach so large a sum as that 
which would have been lost in the burning of so 
large a territory in either of them. The loss of 
property in Saint John would not probably exceed 
thirteen millions of dollars, although some of the 
citizens place the estimate much higher. About five 
millions of dollars' worth of property was insured in 
sound companies. That insured in local mutual 
insurance companies was nearly all a useless invest- 
ment, on account of the universal loss. The names 

179 



180 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

of the companies having losses in Saint John, and 
other information concerning it, will be found in a 
subsequent chapter. 

We give below the list of owners of the buildings 
destroyed, and, as far as possible, the occupants of 
them at the time of the fire, according to the roster 
prepared by the Saint John "Daily News" of July 
9,1877: — 

On North Mai'het Slip. — Heirs Donald McLauch- 
lin : by Daniel McLauchlin, boiler-maker. George 
Sidney Smith: by H. H. Fairweather, store-room 
(this is where the fire made its first appearance). 
Heirs Robert L. Hazen : by R. P. and W. F. Starr, 
coal-sheds. George W. Gerow: by W. A. Spence, 
hay and feed (this building was set on fire after the 
great conflagration). 

On North Street. — James Lawton : by J. F. Law- 
ton, saws ; Edward J. Wetmore, flock manufacturer. 
Property belonging to James Tyzick. William 
Kievenear : by self. William Kievenear : by Michael 
Mclntyre. James Costigan : by self. John Howe : 
by Joseph Gannalo. John Howe : by Robert Hays. 

On Smyth Street. — George Moore : by self. Heirs 
P. McManus : by Margaret McManus. P. McCourt : 
by Mrs. Mary Horton. Patrick McDevitt : by self. 
Thomas Sheenan : by self. Peter Bone : by self. 
E. McLeod (assignee J. C. Brown) : by James 



EXTENT OF THE CALAMITY. 181 

Domville ; J. C. Brown, commission-mercliant. Heirs 
Charles Brown : by R. P. and W. F. Starr, merchan- 
dise. ]\Iargaret S. Robertson : by A. T. Clark, com- 
mission-merchant ; W. N. E. Webb, cordage. Mar- 
garet S. Robertson : by George Snider, commission- 
merchant. Margaret S. Robertson : by L. McMann 
&; Sons, importers. Margaret S. Robertson : by D. 
D. Robertson. M. S. Robertson: by R. P. Mc- 
Givern, coal-shed. Margaret S. Robertson : by J. L. 
Dunn & Co., iron. 

On Drury Lane. — Ann Leonard : by Johanna 
O'Regan. Heirs John Hinsborough: by Patrick 
McLaughlin. John Allen : by Thomas McAnnulty. 
William County: by self. Thomas Morrow: by 
Mrs. Daniel O'Neal. John Donovan : by self. Heirs 
H. Graham : by Mary Graham. Heirs Thomas Da- 
ley : by Mary Daley. Heirs H. Graham : by John 
Cronin. Heirs Helen O'Leary: by P. O'Leary. 
Thomas Hounhan: by self. Edward MuUin: by 
Denis Purtle. John Holland : by self. Catherine 
Healy : by self. Margaret McCarron's property. 
Edward MuUin : by self. Heirs John Bryden : by 
Catherine Bryden ; Bryden Brothers & Co., biscuit- 
makers. 

On Mill Street. — Mrs. Ann Carleton and heirs 
Thomas Quantance : by M. McCallum, " liquors. 
William Finn: by John McDougall, cabinet-maker. 



182 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

Robert Grace : by Joseph Isaac, tobaccos. John 
Lloyd: by Mrs. C. Carty. John Lloyd: by W. H. 
Gibbons, coals. Robert Grace : by self. Heirs 
John Frost : by Charles O'Hara, hair-dressing saloon. 
Heirs E. Lawrence : by Thomas Chapman. Thomas 
A. Rankine : by Thomas Rankine & Sons, cake 
manufactory. Thomas A. and Alexander Rankine : 
by Donald McDougall ; M. V. Paddock, drugs. John 
Bellony and heir John Cotter: by Anthony Cain, 
groceries and liquors ; Stephen Power, groceries and 
liquors. Thomas A. Peters : by L. McGill, shoe 
store. Thomas A. Peters : by John Haggerty. Ann 
Leonard: by James O'Brien. A. G. Kearns : by 
Thomas Marsfield. John Allen : by self. J. S. 
Brittain : by self. James Morrow : by self. John 
Ryan : by self. Edward Hayes : by self. 

On G-eorges Street. — Heirs Peter Sinclair : by 
Mrs. E. Sinclair. Thomas A. and Alexander Ran- 
kine (new three-story brick building belonging to 
factory). Michael Burk: by self. S. R. Foster: by 
self, nail-factory. Michael Duneen : by self. Mar- 
garet Sullivan : by self. 

On Hare's Wharf. — Coal-sheds owned by Mar- 
garet Hare, leased by James Domville & Co., and 
sub-let to Lloyd and others. 

On Robertson Place. — Mary Allan Almon: by 
John W. Nicholson, commission-merchant. D. D. 
Robertson occupied offices and warehouse. 



EXTENT OF THE CALAMITY. 183 

On Firc-Proof Alley. — Heirs of Benjamin Smith : 
by J. S. Johnston & Co. William Caivill : by George 
Carvill, iron-merchant. 

On North Market Wharf. — Eliza Robertson : by 
Frederick Godard, provisions ; John M. Taylor, flour, 
&c. ; Hatfield & Gregory, provisions ; J. & W. F. 
Harrison, flour, &c. George F. Smith: by self. 
John Kirk: by John Littlejohn, liquors. Heirs of 
McLaughlin estate : by D. J. McLaughlin. J. V. 
Thurgar : by Thurgar & Russel, liquors. Conrad J. 
Henrick: by White & Titus, provisions. Hannah 
A. Bates : by James Domville & Co. R. P. McGiv- 
ern : by self, I. & F. Burpee & Co., and William 
Beals. H. W. Frith and Diocesan Church Society : 
by White & Slipp, flour-dealers ; C. H. Hilyard, 
liquors. Heirs of John Duncan : by Erb & Bowman, 
flour, &c. Heirs of George Bonsall: by L. H. 
Waterhouse, coals ; Stephenson & McLean, commis- 
sion-merchants. 

On Nelson Street. — Jane Inches : by Maxwell, 
Elliott & Bradley, blacksmiths. James Lawton and 
Joseph Stone's property. W. H. Brown: by self. 
James Lawton: by James Whelpley. Charles Law- 
ton : by self. Eliza Robertson : by Barbour Brothers 
and others. Heirs of Benjamin Smith : by Kinnear 
Brothers. John Fitzpatrick : by self and John Risk. 
Heirs D. J. McLaughlin : by A. W. Marsters. Bela 



184 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

R. Lawrence : by Fred Fitzpatrick. Fred Fitz- 
patrick: by self and Joseph Bullock, kerosene oil. 
J. D. & George H. Lawrence's property. Mrs. Wil- 
liam Hammond: by Ed. Lantalum & Co., junk. 
Berton Brothers' property. George Carvill : by self. 
Edward T. B. Lawton and Benjamin Lawton : occu- 
pied by Benjamin Lawton, boat-builder. William 
Scovil : by Flint, Dearborn, & Co., spice-mill. Geo. 
Carvill : occupied as a storage-yard. 

On Dock Street. — John McSweeney : by John 
Bellony, residence and picture-store ; A. J. Talbert, 
dry goods; WilHam Purchase, watchmaker. John 
O'Gorman : occupied by self as a grocery and liquor 
store. John McSweeney : occupied by John MuUin, 
groceries and liquors. Heirs of B. Ferguson: by 
Stephens & Figgures, groceries and liquors. Jo- 
hanna R. Ritchie's property. Heirs F. W. Hathe- 
way : by G. M. Burns ; Thomas L. Bourke, groceries 
and liquors ; John Coholan, provisions. Heirs Wil- 
liam Hammond : by Thomas Nash, soda-water ; Fran- 
cis Collins, commission-merchant; Lee & Logan, 
groceries and liquors. James Dever : by Daniel Pat- 
ton, liquors ; Simeon Jones and J. N. Wilson, liquors. 
Heirs John Stanton: by J. Donovan, boots and 
shoes ; Michael Binnington, liquors. Henry Melick, 
heir John Melick: by W. H. Thorne & Co., hard- 
ware. Robert Robertson: by Thomas M, Reed, 



EXTENT OF THE CALAMITY. 185 

drugs ; MuUin Brothers, clotliiiig ; Hugh McCafferty, 
liquors. Heirs Hugh Johnson : by Thomas Lunney, 
clothing ; Brown & Nugent, liquors. Thomas Parks : 
by E. M. Merritt, groceries and liquors. Heirs W. 
A. Robertson : by J. W. & M. Clementson, crockery- 
ware. Heirs Thomas Parks : by Thomas B. Buxton, 
liquors. W. F. Butt : by A. G. Kearns, groceries 
and liquors. Otis Small: by Small & Hatheway, 
steamboat agents ; E. E. Brewster, agent Prescott 
Brewing Company. J. W. & G. H. Lawrence : by 
John Currie, confectioner; Charles Watts, liquors. 
Trustees Yarley School : by Michael Kavanagh, liq- 
uors. Hichard Grace, two buildings : by McDonald 
& Hatfield, clothing ; and Stephen Welsh. S. J. & 
AY. D. Berton : by Berton Brothers, wholesale gro- 
cers. Heirs Elijah Baker : by William Martin, 
clothing. Daniel Monehan : by self as boot-store. 
Joshua A. Corkery : by B. Cotter, clothing. John 
Gallivan : by Daniel Coughlan, clothing. 

On Marhet Square, By W. W. McFeeters, cloth- 
ing; C. R. Ray, dr}^ goods; P. J. Quinn, dry goods; 
Kerr & Scott. J. M. Walker : by Lewis & AUing- 
ham, hardware. Heirs John Wilmot: by Richard 
Thompson, *' Sheffield House." Daniel & Boyd : by 
owners as wholesale dry goods ; Joseph Barnes & Co., 
retail dry goods. Heirs Thomas Merritt : by A. C. 
Smith, drugs ; W. W. Jordan, dry goods. John Mc- 
Manus : occupied by self, clothing. 



186 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

On South FAar/. — Heirs H. W. Wilson: by F. 
Tufts, provisions ; Oliver Emery, provisions. Heirs 
Thomas Gilbert : by Gilbert Bent, flour, &c. R. & 
G. Barbour: by Barbour Brothers. George S. 
DeForest : by self, provisions. William Scovil : by 
George Morrison, jun., provisions. H. & J. Gil- 
bert: by Andrew Malcolm, groceries. George C. 
Wiggins : by Griffin Brothers, fish. James E. Mas- 
ters : by Masters & Patterson, fish, &c. James True- 
man : by self, provisions. Heirs I. L. Bedell : by 
W. I. Whiting, provisions ; Samuel T. Strang, provis- 
ions. J. H. Allen : by self, provisions ; Thomas Gor- 
man, provisions. James & Robert Reed : by Thomas 
Boyne ; W. Lorrimer, provisions ; George L. Parte- 
low, liquors. Heirs Thomas Merritt: by C. A. 
Clark, provisions ; J. C. Ferguson, provisions. Heirs 
Benjamin Smith : by William Rising, provisions. 

On Ward Street. — Heirs Benjamin Smith : by 
John M. Stafford, liquors. Heirs Benjamin Smith : 
by Richard Coughlan, liquors. W. W. & C. G. 
Turnbull : old buildings taken by them while their 
new building was being erected. Wm. B. Frith: 
storage and coal sheds. Properties belonging to 
Knox & Thompson and heirs of John Walker & Co. 
W. B. Smith's property. B. S. H. & J. S. Gilbert: 
by Charles J. Partelow, liquors. George S. De- 
Forest: by William Black, ship-chandler. Bela R, 



EXTENT OF THE CALAMITY. 187 

Lawrence : by Gilbert Bent as storage-rooms. Mrs. 
Catherine McNamara: by self. William Breeze's 
bonded warehouse. Moses Lawrence: by Schofiekl 
& Beer, grain, &;c. William M. B. Frith : by George 
McKean, merchandise. William M. B. Frith : by 
J. W. Frith, ship-chandler. William M. B. Frith : 
by P. McCormack, clothing. John Mitchell : by 
owner, ship-carving. William Meneally: by self. 
Gallagher and Young's cooperage. Azor W. T. 
Betts: by John Corbett, block-maker. 

On Johnson's Wharf. — Stephen S. Hall and C. H. 
Fairweather : by Hall &; Fairweather, storage. John 
Wishart : by self. Heirs John Walker ; by Robert 
Carleton, blockmaker; William jMcFee, blacksmith. 
W. A. Robertson : by self, storage. 

On I)ishroiu''s Wharf. — John and William Magee : 
by Jones & Cassely, riggers. 

On St. John Street. — Sarah A. and Jane Tisdale : 
by James McFarlane ; Arthur P. Tippet, fruit and 
groceries; Jas. Kennedy, provisions. Bela R. Law- 
rence : by C. M. Bostwick, provisions. William B. 
Jack: by Thomas McAvity & Sons, brass-founders. 
B. S. H. & J. S. Gilbert : by Thomas McAvity & 
Sons. W. W. TurnbuU : by Troop & McLauchlan, 
ship-chandlers. Allen Brothers, property. Property 
of James Harris &t Co. James Ferrie : by self, gro- 
cery and liquors. George Carvell : by John Evans, 



188 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

liquors. Heirs Jolin Walker: by William Stanton, 
liquors. Heirs John Walker : by Charles Ring, 
liquors. Heirs John Walker : by John Melick, ship- 
brokerage. City Corporation: by harbor - master. 
Magee Brothers' property. Henry Brennan : by self, 
saloon. Charles Merritt : by C. E. Scammell & Co., 
ship-chandlers ; George Thomas, merchandise ; Jo- 
seph Prichard & Son, iron and cordage. Charles 
Merritt: by John Regan. Charles Merritt: by T. 
McCarthy, coal, &c. W. A. Robertson : by R. Rob- 
ertson & Son, ship-chandlers. J. & R. Reed, by own- 
ers ; J. L. Woodworth, agent Mispeck Mills. City 
Corporation, as fish-market. Mrs. Louisa Hanford: 
by Mrs. Catherine James. Mrs. Louisa Hanford: 
by W. Pike, workshops. George McLeod and Alex- 
ander Keitli : by Hevenor & Co., coppersmiths. 
George McLeod and Alexander Keith, storage-sheds. 
George McLeod and Alexander Keith : by George 
McLeod. City Corporation: storage. Heirs Wil- 
liam McKay: by Wills & Rubins, blacksmiths. 
James E. Holstead and Mrs. Louisa Hanford: by 
James E. Holstead. Norris Best and Mrs. Louisa 
Hanford : b}^ N. Best, iron-merchant. J. & R. Reed : 
by D. V. Roberts, ship-chandler. Henry Vaughan : 
by self; S. Leonard & Co., groceries. Heirs of 
George L. Lovitt: by J. Donaldson. Augustus 
Quick, and Driscoll Brothers. Archibald Rowan: 



EXTENT OF THE CALAMITY. 189 

by self, plumbing. Unoccupied property owned by 
Messrs. C. Merritt and George and 11. Chubb. 
Bank of New Brunswick : by John Runciman, brass- 
founder. Bank of New Brunswick : by James Dyall, 
plumbing. Thomas Furlong : by owner, liquors ; 
John D. Devoe, liquors. Heirs E. Stephens : by 
Adam Young, foundry warehouse. Stephen Whit- 
taker : by James Moulson, groceries. Heirs Richard 
Sands : by Andrew Buist, liquors ; John Horn, 
liquors ; M. A. Finn, liquors ; and J. W. Potts. 
Heirs William Parks : by J. & J. Hegan. Heirs 
Andrew Hastings : by George Robertson, groceries. 
Charles and John Patton, groceries and liquors. 
Heirs J. M. Robertson : by James T. Kirk, clothing. 
On Prince William Street. — Ed. Sears : by Andrew 
Johnston, tailoring. City Corporation : police station. 
Henry McCuUough : by H. & H. A. McCuUough, and 
Watts & Turner, dry goods. President and directors 
of Maritime Bank : by Maritime Bank, Bank of Mon- 
treal, Bank of Nova Scotia, Board of School Trustees, 
Board of Trade, Stock Exchange ; agency Dun, Wi- 
man, & Co. Heirs John Gillis : by Magee Brothers, 
dry goods ; John McSweeney & Co., shoe-store. 
Buildings owned by Mrs. John Kinnear : Hon. Isaac 
Burpee. Heirs John Ennis, heirs Noali Disbrow: 
all rebuilding after previous fire. Heirs Samuel Nich- 
ols : by Fairall & Smith, dry goods. John Armstrong : 



190 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

by James Manson & Co., dry goods. L. H. Vaughan : 
by Barnes & Co., printers. J. L. Dunn : by E. Peiler 
& Brothers, music-dealers ; James S. May, clothing ; 
R. H. B. Tennant, shirt-maker. John Anderson : by 
Joseph H. Yalpey, shoe-store ; John Mitchell, jnn., 
shoe store. Heirs Samuel Nichols : by Robert Ste- 
venson, shoe-store ; Ed. Lawton, drugs. J. & A. Mc- 
Millan : by owners as book-store and printing-estab- 
lishment. Heirs of J. M. Walker : by Eastern Ex- 
press Company; S. Jones & Co., brokers ; Sheraton & 
Skinner, carpets. Fred. A. Wiggins : by M. Francis 
& Sons, shoe store ; Z. G. Gabel, India-rubber goods ; 
John R. Yaughan, shoe-store. City Corporation : 
City Building. Heirs Jane Boyd : by William Elder, 
printer ; Moses Michaels, tobacconist. Property of 
Morris Robinson and Bank of Nova Scotia. Maria 
S. Bayard: insurance-office. A. B. Barnes: by self 
as a hotel. Heirs George L. Lovitt : by O. S. Lovitt ; 
James T. Magee, tinsmith. Hugh Davidson : by 
Thomas Lunney ; Alfred Mills, chronometers. Nathan 
Green: by self as tobacco-store; and Samuel Cor- 
bett, cabinet-maker. Susan and Phcebe Purdy: by 
Susan Purdy. Mrs. John Mclntyre : by W. H. 
Olive, agency. Patrick McArdle : by self, liquors ; 
J. J. Mullin, clothing; Charles Bailie, fishing-rods. 
William Cotter : by Doody & Toole, plumbing. 
William Cotter : by self, meat-store. Heirs Francis 



EXTENT OF THE CALAMITY. 191 

Ferguson : by A. R. Ferguson. Thomas F. Ray- 
mond : by owner, as hotel '•'- Roj^al ; " Michael Black- 
hall, livery-stable. Thomas McAvity : by James 
Griffin. Heirs Thomas Pettingill: by Charles H. 
Hay. Heirs James Pettingill : by O. S. Pettingill. 
Heirs Ed. Finnegan : by Henry Finnegan ; Solomon 
Hartt, tobacconist. Robert S. Hyke : by self, as 
hotel " International." John Foster : by owner, 
groceries and liquors. John McCoskery ; by Charles 
A. McCoskery, groceries and liquors. John McCosk- 
ery : by Mrs. Lordly as boarding-house. Moses Law- 
rence : by William Hawker, drugs. Charles King : 
by David Churchill, fancy goods. George A. Freeze : 
by George Scott. Robert Pengilly : by Thomas Pen- 
gilly, drugs. Heirs Thomas Reed : by John Rich- 
ards, liquors. Heirs William McFadden : by James 
A. Burns. C. E. Robinson : by self, ship-brokerage. 
C. E. Harding : by self. James Milligan and Joggins 
Coal Mining Association, coal-sheds. City Corpora- 
tion : by M. May. Heirs H. Chubb : by William 
Kirk. Heirs H. Chubb : by Jacob Weiscoff, liquors. 
Heirs H. Chubb : by Peter Garvin. W. H. Hathe- 
way : by self. William Blizzard : by self. Heirs 
William McKay : by A. Brims & Co., brewers. Rev. 
Wm. Scovil: by W. H. Scovil. J. J. Kaye ; by M. 
Wallace. City Corporation : by John Howlahan. Do- 
minion of Canada : Custom House. Trustee Hanford 



192 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

estate : D. Bridgeo, boarding-house. Trustee Han- 
ford estate : J. Hammond, boots and shoes ; D. 
Coughlan, clothing. Patrick Morrisey: b}'' self, 
liquors. William Finn: by self ; A.J. H. Bartsch. 
Ann Thomas : by Mrs. Bridget Cain, fruit, &c. ; 
Thomas Gunn, clothing. John Tilton : by Robert 
Wetsel, saloon; Messrs. Gould, dyers. Henry 
Vaughan, and heirs Simonds & Vaughan : by Stew- 
art & White, commission-merchants. Ellis & Arm- 
strong: by owners, printers; Adam Young, ware- 
rooms. Charles Merritt: by St. John Building 
Society, News Room, Stadacona Insurance Company ; 
Wilson, Gilmour, & Co. Charles Merritt: by John 
Ross, liquors. Charles Merritt : by W. H. Sinnott, 
law-office. Charlotte Gibbons : by George Sparrow, 
saloon. James D. Lewin and Bank of New Bruns- 
wick : by Bank of New Brunswick. Dominion of 
Canada : Post Office. Heirs H. Chubb : by George 
and James Chubb, printers and stationers. Heirs 
Ambrose Perkins: by W. A. Hayward, crockery- 
ware. Heirs William Major: by William Major, 
hair-dressing saloon. Heirs J. M. Walker : by George 
Philps, banker. Richard S. and J. S. Bois DeVeber : 
by owners, wholesale dry goods. Jessie H. Nicker- 
son : by H. K. Tufts, shoe-store. Alexander Jardine : 
by A. Jardine & Co., groceries ; Samuel Hayward 
& Co., hardware. Heirs Richard Sands : by Wis- 



EXTENT OF THE CALAMITY. 193 

dom & Fisli, rubber-belting and gas-fitting ; James 
B. Cameron & Co., oil-lamps ; T. W. Angling, " Free- 
man " office ; Steves Brothers, general merchandise. 
John Ilcgan : by J. & J. Hegan, dry goods. Heirs 
John Hastings : by J. J. Hegan and Beard & Ven- 
ning, dry goods. Kobert Douglas : by M. Farrall, 
clothing. Heirs Benjamin Longmair: by Eobert 
Marshall, insurance ; P. C. Redmond, clothing ; Mrs. 
John Benson, millinery ; Roger Hunter, printer. 
Daniel & Boyd : by owners. 

On Canterbury Street. — Wm. G. Lawton : occu- 
pied by owner, dry goods. John Vassie : occupied 
by owner, dry goods. A. G. Bowes : by Bowes and 
Evans, tinsmiths. James O'Connor : R, J. Ritchie, 
agent, not occupied. Heirs W. H. Owens : by Geo. 
Flinn, saloon. Sarah Owens : by George A. Noble, 
shoemaker. A. R. Wetmore : by McKillop & John- 
ston, printers. Thomas R. Jones ; by self, as factory. 
James Walker : by N. B. Paper Co. Willis & Mott : 
by owners as " Daily News " office and paper-collar 
factory. North British & Mercantile Insurance Co. : 
by H. Jack, company's agent, and Everitt & Butler, 
wholesale dry goods. Thomas R. Jones : T. R. Jones 
& Co., wholesale dry goods. Thomas R. Jones : by 
W. H. Thorne & Co., hardware. George Y. Nowlin : 
by B. Brannan, liquors. George Moore ; by owner, 
tinsmith. Heirs D. J. McLaughlin : by Henry Con- 
roy & Son, hair-dressers. 



194: GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

On Germain Street. — Heirs John Ward : W. F. 
Butt & Co., clothing; Thomas White, confection- 
ery. Heirs John Ward : Thomas Campbell, gas-fitter. 
Heirs W. Tisdale : by A. Gilmour, clothing. James 
E. White : by S. R. Knowles, trunks ; R. B. Emer- 
son, stoves. N. B. Masonic Hall Company : by James 
Sweeney. N. B. Masonic Hall Company : by C. E. 
Burnham &; Co., upholsterers. N. B. Masonic Hall 
Company : by E. McMcoU, Messrs. Belyea & Knowles. 
Rector and Wardens Trinity Church : Trinity Church. 
John A. Anderson : by Ann Lyons, old furniture. 
D. J. McLaughlin : by Mary Ann Armstrong. D. J. 
McLaughlin : by William & James Notman, photog- 
raphers. Edward Sears, by self. W. Tremain Gard, 
goldsmith. Jane Brown, millinery. Edward Sears : 
by W. T. Gard; G. Caldwell, dentist. Trustees 
Wesleyan Methodist Church : by Rev. R. Roberts. 
Trustees Wesleyan Methodist Church : church. 
Trustees Saint John Grammar School: school- 
house. Trustees Saint John Grammar School ; by 
Richard Welch, tailor. Trustees Saint Andrew 
Church : church. Victoria Hotel Company : hotel. 
Property of Otis Small and Moses Lawrence. Heirs 
Edwin Bayard : by Mrs. Edwin Bayard. H. R. Ran- 
ney : by Mrs. Wesley Thompson. John McMillan : 
by James McMillan. John McMillan : by John 
McMillan. Heirs Robertson Bayard : by Dr. James 



EXTENT OF THE CALAMITY. 195 

A. McAllister. Heirs Samuel Seeds : by Mrs. Jolm 
McGrath. Heirs Samuel Seeds: by Mrs. Seeds. 
Heirs Robert Parker, barn. Trustees Home for the 
Aged: Home for the Aged. Trustees Germain- 
street Baptist Church : by Rev. Mr. Carey. Trustees 
Germain-street Baptist Church: church. John H. 
Harding : by self. John H. Harding : by Charles E. 
Turnbull. John Chaloner: by self. IMrs. Duncan 
Robertson : by self. Heirs William Hammond : by 
Mrs. Hammond. Heirs William Hammond (two 
houses) : by William Wilson. William Thomas : by 
self. W. C. Perley: by self. Charles Philips: by 
self. Heirs G. E. S. Keator: by William Lewis, 
blacksmith. James Miller: by R. Bent, groceries. 
James Miller : by self. Caleb Larkins : by A. J. 
Devine. Heirs Donald Cameron : by Mrs. B. A. 
Cameron. William J. Stevens : by O. D. Wetmore. 
George Hutchinson, jun. : by self. Property belong- 
ing to heirs B. Robinson. Heirs A. Balloch : by W. 

B. Lyon. Mrs. Samuel Seeds : by Robert Ritchie, 
groceries. Heirs Samuel Seeds : by C. K. Cameron. 
F. W. Climo : by Mrs. Mary Crane. Charles R. Ray : 
by self. James R. Ruel : by self. Mrs. H. M. John- 
son : by J. M. C. Fiske. Heirs Thomas Parks : by 
Rev. H. Daniel ; J. R. McFarlane, tallow-chandler. 
Heirs Thomas Parks: by Charles Edwards. Eleirs 
Edward Ketchum : by E. E. Kenney, pianos. Heirs 



196 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN, 

R. Bayard : by John Friel. Heirs Lanclilan Douald- 
son : by Dr. J. E. Griffith. Heirs Lauchlan Donald- 
son : by Mrs. Mary Keator. William Bayard : by Dr. 
William Bayard. Alexander Sime : by self. H. U. 
Miller: by self. Joseph Bullock: by self; Dr. A. 
F. McAvenny. James Lawton: by self. William 
Davidson : by self. Academy of Music Company : 
Academy of Music ; A. T. Bustin, pianofortes. Wil- 
liam Breeze : by self ; Miss Philips, hair-jewelry ; 
Samuel Tufts, groceries. J. C. Hatheway : by self ; 
William Irvine & Brothers, groceries. Heirs Henry 
Hennigar: R. J. Moffatt; Joseph E. Arrowsmith, 
meat and vegetables. George Y. Nowlin : by Benja- 
min Williams. George Y. Nowlin: by Miss Kate 
Reid ; William Bruckhop. George Y. Nowlin : by 
Richard O'Brien, liquors ; W. E. Blanchard, sewing- 
machines. Heirs Daniel Leavitt : by J. D. Underbill ; 
George Hutchinson, watchmaker. James H. Peters : 
John S. Climo, photographer. James H. Peters : by 
Cliarles H. Hall, sewing-machines. Trustees Mrs. 
Alexander : by John Leitch & Co., commission 
agency. James H. Peters : by Hatchings & Co., 
bedding, &c. James PI. Peters : by Lordly, Howe, 
& Co., furniture. Robert Robertson : by Dr. A. M. 
Ring ; Charles K. Cameron, millinery ; Hamilton, 
Lomburg, & Co., commission agents. Heirs D. J. 
McLaughlan : by H. Brockington, tailoring ; John 



EXTENT OF THE CALAMITY. 197 

Gutlirie, hack and livery stable. S. K. Foster : by 
-self; Pugsley and Bradley, dentists. S.K.Foster: 
by Samuel Nixon ; Thomas H. Keohan, millinery and 
jDictures. S. K. Foster :. by James P. Ilanington, 
drugs; Thomas B. Colpitts, photography; W. K. 
Crawford, book-store. 

On Charlotte Street. — Houses owned by Charles 
Merritt, John Ilolden, James Vernon, Dr. McLaren, 
Dr. John Berryman, Mary L. Wheeler, Patrick 
Doherty, James Mason, Mrs. T. L. Coughlan, Sam- 
uel Corbett, Samuel Hayward, Mary A. and heirs 
Samuel Crawford, Eliza Chapman, Johannah Dacey 
and heirs Timothy Dacey, James Devoe, Thomas 
Welly, John Farren, heirs Benjamin Longmore, 
heirs Francis McAvenny, heir^ William Potts, C. E. 
Harding, Pugsley, Crawford and Pugsley, William 
Breeze, E. P. McGivern, James Vernon, Agnes Stew- 
art (two houses), John Marvin, Samuel Smith, John 
Watson, Charlotte Stevens, Thomas McAvity (two), 
William McDermott, Alexander and heirs Robert 
Jardine, Maritime Sewing Machine Company, Alex- 
ander McDermott, John Fisher, sen., James McGiv- 
ern, Dominion of Canada, John Sandall, J. D. 
McAvity, H. Duffell, Mary and heirs Peter Fleming 
(two), Michael Flood, Kate Mulherrin, Nicholas 
Powers or Denis Lawlor, Peter Besnard, jun., Wil- 
liam McDermott, H. Maxwell (three), James A. 



198 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

Harding, James Robinson, Paul Daley, Currie and 
Holman, William White, W. H. Harrison, John 
Fielders, William McAuley, Jane Murray, Eliza 
McLaughlin, Louisa Hanford, John D. Devoe 
(three), Nancy Hazen, Ann D. Thomson, James 
Williams, William Davidson, Mary Farley, Mrs. 
Frederick James and others, Peter Besnard, sen., 
Peter Besnard, George Stockton, John Lawson, 
John Nugent, Daniel MuUin, Rev. A. Wood, James 
H. PuUen, Elena Clarahue, John Berryman (three), 
J. O. Miller, F. J. Cochrane, James Langell, Corpo- 
ration Trinity Church (three), Gideon Prescott 
(three), James Guthrie and G. Hevenor, George 
Williams, John D. Gaynor (two), William Hillman, 
John Winters (two), James Rodgers, Daniel E. 
Leach, Peter Besnard, William M. Ward, Corpora- 
tion Trinity Church, occupied by George Haj'ward 
(hotel), Robert Mc Andrews, grocerie's ; George Spar- 
row, saloon; J. J. Johnston, clothing, Fulton Bev- 
erly (two). 

Oil Sydney Street. — Buildings owned by Dr. Tra- 
vers, W. J. B. Marter (two), T. C. Humbert, John 
McBrine, Right Reverend Bishop Sweeney (St. Mal- 
achi's Plall), George V. Nowlin (two), Ed. McAleer, 
E. Kinsman, Trustees Reformed Presbyterian Church 
(church), W, S. Llarvin, William Davidson, John 
Anderson, Susan Dobson, William Meneally, George 



EXTENT OF TUE CALAMITY. 199 

J. Coster, Robert Gregory, Riglit Reverend Bisliop 
Sweeny (Temperance Hall), Board of Scliool Trus- 
tees (Victoria ScliooUiouse), Michael Flood, John R. 
Armstrong, William Wedderburn, Norris Best, Henry 
Thomas, John Murray, James Knox, William Burnes 
(two), Robert McKa}^ E. M. S. Stewart (three), 
William Yassie, Thomas W. Peters, E. L. Perking, 
R. Rolston, Sarah McRory, John Carney, Ellen 
Mooney, Coldwell Howard, James Lemon, Sarah 
Taylor, Elizabeth Robbins (two), J. D. Vanwart, 
Ann Wane (two), Dominion of Canada (several 
properties for military stores, &c.), John McAnulty, 
Alexander McDermott, Mary Clark and heirs, John 
Clark, C. Longstroth, Alexander Kearns, D. J. 
McLaughlan and others, Henry Jack and others, R. 
W. Crookshanks, E. L. Perkins, Charles Hillan, S. 
E. F. James, Margaret Maloney, W. J. Morrison, 
Michael McAlear (two), Stephen J. Lauckner, James 
Milligan (two), Christian Brothers, John Gray, Trus- 
tees St. David's Church (church), E. Richey, Re- 
becca Schooler and heirs, David Marshall, L. S. 
Currie, James Yernon (two), William D. Aitkin, 
Robert Mclntyre and Co., James L. Taylor. 

On Eorsfield Street. — James H. PuUen, Mrs. W. 
McKay (two), Peter Besnard (two), John Lowe 
(two), Ellen McAvenny, John Nugent (two), Sophia 
McLean, Mary Durant, Thomas Beddell, Catherine 



200 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

]^oyes, M. Perry, Knox and Thompson, William 
Breeze. 

On Harding Street. — Hobert Carleton, Mary Don- 
aliey, Sarah Gillice (two), John "Wilson (two), 
Mary, Richard, and Neil Morrison, George Hender- 
son, James O'Connor (three), William McDermott 
(two), heirs J. W. Young (two). 

On Pagan Place. — Joseph Sulis, Lonisa Donald, 
Mrs. Emma Allison, A. L. Palmer, Moses Lawrence 
(two), Robert Leonard, Charles S. Taylor, Stephen 
G. Bhzard. 

On St. Andrew^ s Street. — Thomas W. Peters 
(two), Robert Gasldn, H. Ahlbone, John Kee (two), 
James Gibnour, James Ritchey, John Ritchey, James 
Sterling (two), John Wishart, Margaret Suffren, E. 
Woodley, John McCaffery, Robert Wetsell. 

On Carmarthen Street. — Building owned by Ann 
Cronin, Elizabeth and Samuel Gardner, heirs Aaron 
Eaton (three), H. A. Austin, George E. King, 
Charles Barnes, Mary A. Ward, E. E. Lockhart, 
James Adams (three), John D. Lormer, Samuel 
Ferguson (two), George P. Johnston and others 
(three), Hugh Bell, Catherine Bonnell, James Hill 
(two), W. D. Carron, James Muldon, Saint John 
Gas Light Company (gas works). Trustees Method- 
ist Church (church). Trustees Protestant Orphan 
Asylum* (orphan asylum), Margaret O'Neil (two), 



EXTENT OF THE CALAMITY. ' 201 

James IMcKinncy, James IMcCroucliford (two), Mary 
Ann Pointer, Daniel Smith, John Kirk (two), Sam- 
uel Dunham (two), Alexander Steen, Setli Scribner, 
Daniel Doyle, IMary Doyle, John Kirkpatrick, Esq., 
Smith, Hugh S. Normansell, Jane Carson, Catherine 
Nagle, Richard Evans, John Eichey, Thomas Ean- 
kine, Thomas Doyle, John Wilson, Charles McLean, 
W. P. Dole, Joseph Henderson, H. Henderson, Rev. 
J. R. Narraway, Andrew Kenney, L. H. Waterhouse, 
Agnes E. Prouse, William Nixon, Daniel Driscoll, 
Robert Wetsell, George Sparrow and J. S. Richard- 
son, William Finley. 

On Wentwortli Street. — Buildings belonging to E. 
E. Lockhart, Thomas Dobson, George Sparrow, 
George Blatch, Cornelius Sparrow (two), John W. 
Fleming and others, Henry Whiteside, John Fitz- 
patrick, Henry Coffey, M. Barnes, C. Flaherty, C. E. 
Sulis, B. P. Price (three), James Moulson and 
others (two), John A. Anderson, B. McDermott, R. 
P. Emerson, J. T. Barnes, George Doherty (two), 
C. Cathers (two), Alexander Steen, William Hill 
(two), Knox and Thompson (four), John Carr. 

On Main Street. — John E. TurnbuU (four), John 
Woodley, James G. Jordan, Alexander Steen (two), 
James Tole, James O'Brien, William Bowden, Wil- 
liam Coxetter and Michael Tucker, Thomas M. Reed, 
Sarah L. Collins (two), Daniel McDermott, P. Van- 



202 ' GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

horn, James Mahoney (three), James Moulson, Jane 
Halcrow, Lawrence Markee, George J. Sulis (two), 
William Lewis, John and Robert Magee, Troop & 
Co. (Vinegar Works), J. W. Nicholson, George R. 
Bent (two), A. L. Rawlins, D. Knight, F. Mahoney, 
Edward Thurmott, William McKinney, Archibald 
Dibblee, George V. Thomas, John Guthrie, Mary 
Ann Ratcliff, James McKinney, O. V. Troop, Rec- 
tor and Wardens Saint James Church (church), 
C. Langstroth, Andrew Armstrong. 

On Britain Street, — Building owned by Sarah 
McFadden, Jane Barbour, John Collins, D. J. Schur- 
man, John Scott, Henry Spears, Thomas Miller, 
Thomas McCullough, Thomas Crozier, James Price, 
William J. Colson, P. McGonnagle, C. Larkins, H. 
W. Purdy, E. Murray, heirs D. Hatfield, James 
McAvity, William Furlong, John Abbott, John 
Bartlett, Albert Peters, George Garraty, B. Coxet- 
ter, E. Thompson, Margaret McPartland, Fay Stew- 
art, Daniel Jordan (two), William Ennis, James 
Nicholson, Robert Barbour, Albert Betts, H. W. 
Purdy, Charles Merritt (three), George W. Belyea, 
J. J. Jardine, James Gorman, J. Moore (two), Law- 
rence McMann (two), James Peckthall, F. M. Han- 
cock, C. J. Ward, Mrs. James Bell, W. H. Hathe- 
way, John Hutchinson, Peter Besnard, sen. (three), 
Robert Johnston (two), J. Hayes, Neil Hoyt, Nich- 



« 
EXTENT OF THE CALAMITY. 203 

olas Carroll, IM. Barnes, Heirs L. II. DcVcber (two), 
F. Pheasant, Andrew Doyle, Robert Dalton, W. J. 
Pratt, D. Pvobinson, W. A. Magee, S. McGarvey, 
Margaret McPartlancl, Bridget Murphy, Thomas Bis- 
sett, Bridget Farren, J. George, Edward Duffy, J. E. 
Turnbull (two), E. Thompson (two), John Moran 
(two), John Crowley, W. H. Quinn (three), Fran- 
cis Williams (two), F. M. Hancock, John Wishart, 
David J. Schuerman, Mary McCurdy, H. Maxwell 
and Son, G. Blizard, Thomas Robinson. 

0)1 Saint James Street. — Thomas M. Reed, O. 
Cline, Richard Cline, James Kemp, John Bridges, W. 
I. Whiting, J. McLarren, E. Thompson, Mrs. Alex. 
Coughlan, William Leahy, Samuel Rutherford, John 
Doody, John Sherrard, John Knowles, John Sears 
(three), Cornelius Cain, William Furlong (two), 
Bridget Murphy, John Watson, Thomas Yiall, George 
Young, James Ellis, E. L. Perkins (two), William 
Simpson, Alice McKean, Patrick McGonagle, M. 
Burk, P. Ferrie, Mrs. Thomas Hanlon, Samuel Fisher, 
Eliza Wilson, John Wilson, jun., J. and A. Camp- 
bell, Daniel Sullivan, Robert Holmes, Cornelius Mori- 
arty, John Runciman, Robert J. Coldwell, W. Casey, 
Board of School Trustees (schoolhouse), Rev. Wil- 
liam Scovil, John Fisher, John Cain, Rev. William 
Scovil, and Trustees of Wiggin's Orphan Asylum 
(asylum), Jeremiah Drake, William Duffell, Thomas 



204 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

White, Thomas Pike, William Furlong, F. P. Robin- 
son, John Winters, James Price, William Gilfillan, 
Louisa Oglesby, Martha Pay, Jane White (two), 
William Pussell, Mrs. David Millar, heirs Thomas 
King, P. Condon, James Aykroyd, David Stewart, 
Patrick Ferrie, Charles Osburn, Elizabeth Spence, 
Rev. M. Ritchey, Thomas Kedey, William Lewis 
(three), Michael Flood, John Wishart, John S. Mul- 
lin, John Littler, Michael Flood, heirs Daniel Hat- 
field, heirs F. Dibblee, Purdy heirs, B. Coxetter, 
Thomas G. Merritt, heirs Richard Sands, Caleb 
Larkins, Thomas F. Raymond, Mrs. Clementson, D. 
J. Schurman, Thomas Littlejohn, Charles Sinclair, 
John Callahan. 

On Pitt Street, — Buildings owned by Silas H. 
Brown, Plenry Lawlor, James' Cummings, Francis 
Jordan, Rebecca Fisher, Ed. R. Fisher, D. S. Robin- 
son, James Hewett, C. Lawton (two), and several 
smaller buildings. 

On Sheffield Street, — Buildings owned by Gilbert 
estate, Matthew Thompson (two), James Carr, E. 
Yanhorn, James Brown, heirs Ged. McKelvie (two), 
John A. Anderson, Robert Robertson, Margaret Hen- 
nigar, Joseph Kimpson, Ferguson & Rankine (two), 
Young Men's Christian Association, Michael McYane, 
(two), Robert Conniff, John Kirk, Alex. Harvey, 
Jane Wasson, Mrs. P. Riley, James Henry Anthony, 



EXTENT OF THE CALAMITY. 205 

Jolin McCabe (two), Jolm Wooclburn, C. O'Keeffe, 
Richard McCliiske}^ John Fisher, Alexander McDer- 
mott, Purves & Moore, J. Drake, E. Magee, John 
Porter, Rector and Wardens Saint James Church, 
Stephen and James Oakes, Samuel Dunham, Mary 
Ann Pointer, Catherine O'Neal (two), Michael Mc- 
Vane, Daniel Smith, Joseph McCullough, McKelvie 
heirs, Trustees Methodist Church, David Dodge and 
Elizabeth Nixon, Lewis Wheaton, George Anning, 
Joseph Sulis, James Yanhorn. 

On Queen Square^ north side. — E. L. Jewett, 
Thomas Furlong, Isaac Woodward, John Boyd, 
George B. Gushing, Robert Crookshanks, A. L. 
Palmer, James IManson (two). 

On Queen Square^ south side. — W. B. Smith, 
heirs Charles Brown, John Horn, J. W. Barnes, D. 
Robertson (two), Mrs. Charles Brown and heirs of 
Charles Brown, John Stewart, F. Tufts, John Tucker, 
H. Jack. 

On Queen Street. — John Foster, Richard Longman, 
Margaret Oliver, Thomas P. Davis, H. Hawkins, Jes- 
sie Day, Mrs. Alex. Dalsall, J. H. Harding, James U. 
Thomas, Joseph Sulis, George Riley and heirs, Rob- 
ert Riley (two), Jeremiah O' Council, William Davis 
and heirs, John McNichol, Mary Bersay, John R. 
McFarlane, James McCart (two), Ed. Edgson, Mrs. 
Jane McPherson, James Thomas and heirs, John 



206 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

Thomas, Hugh Kelly, Samuel Benterell, John Hamil- 
ton, Margaret Homer, heirs John Roberts, George S. 
Fisher, Robert Turner, John McBrine (two), Rich- 
ard Cassicly (two), John Kerr, Thomas Jordan, D. 
S. Kerr, John Pettingill, C. Flood (two), George 
Suffren, Charles E. Raymond, John Fitzpatrick, 
James Gallaghar, George Johnson Mxon, A. Quirk, 
heirs R. Bayard, R. J. Leonard, G. F. Soley (two), 
Alex. Steen, Hugh Carswell, Mrs. John Milledge, 
Hugh S. Normansall, heirs John Whitney, John Wil- 
son, jun., John Wilson (two), Margaret and heirs 
Joseph Hanley (two), Thomas Doyle, Andrew Evans, 
Robert Marshall, William Black, F. M. Hancock, 
Alex. McKelvey, William Pike (two), heirs D. J. 
McLaughlin, J. McFarlane, Thomas McAvity, jun. 
Robert Hickson, M. Frances, D. Brown, Mary Croth- 
ers and heirs John Crothers, Ann Thomas, Andrew 
Keohan, Mary Williams, John Scallon (two), Simeon 
Leonard. 

On Mecklenburg Street. — James Hutchinson and 
heirs Joseph Stephenson (two), Richard Longmaid, 
H. Yaughan (two), John Yassie, Charles McLean, 
heirs James Whitney, Margaret Hillman, C. Mclver, 
heirs Charles Whitney, John Dyers, Mary Dockrill, 
W. M. Jordan, James Emerson, James McNichol, 
heirs Joseph Atkins, Mary Ann McLean, F. L. 
Lewin, T. W. Seeds, Benjamin Dodge, John Ennis, 



EXTENT OF THE CALAMITY. 207 

John Dick, James Woodstock, Pliebe Bookhout, 
IMartin Burns, Edward Purchase, Thomas Dobson, 
Ann Atkins, James Knox, Francis Gallagher, INIat- 
tliew Steen, William Causey, George V. Nowlin, 
Andrew Armstrong, W. McVay, William McKeel, 
heirs Aaron Eaton, John Magee, William Magee, 
J. W. Nicholson. 

On Luke Street. — P. McArdle, Peter Flanagan, 
Mrs. Francis Ferguson (two), Joseph Bell, John 
McSorley (three), heirs E. Bayard (two), A. Blain, 
Peter Besnard (two), Mrs. William Livingston, Mrs. 
W. Frazer, John Marven, Samuel Tufts, Jeremiah 
Shannon, O. Bailey, trustees Madras School, Cor- 
bett, Seely and Besnard, R. W. Crookshank, Susan 
Stephenson, Bernard Brannan (two), Robert Thom- 
son (two), Samuel Gardner, Andrew Gilmour, Rev. 
William Scovil, S. K. Brundage, Joseph Henderson, 
H. Henderson, William H. Yandall, William McBay, 
J. Wilkins, sen., J. Wilkins, jun.^ William Francis, 
James Adams, Mrs. Gilchrist, James Saunders, Sarah 
Whitney, Sarah Partelow, Edward Purchase (two), 
Robert S. Jones, George Sparrow, Mary Ann Mc- 
Lean (two), M. Morrison, Charlotte Jones, Michael 
Burns, P. Bushfan, George Sparrow, William Wright, 
heirs William Melody, Margaret Hartness, E. Burn- 
side, Howard D. Troop, John Marven, John Cook, 
James Adams, Sarah Ferguson, heirs Edward Brun- 



208 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

dage (two), Clara and heirs Thomas Kent, William 
Stephens, Jacob Seely, trustees Christian Church 
(church), John Wishart, L. H. Waterhouse, James 
Milligan, Sarah Jane Ferguson, George A. Thomp- 
son, John Richards, W. F. Butt, Arthur Daniel 
(two), heirs Daniel Culbert, James Vernon, Mrs. 
Earley, Peter Besnard, sen., Sarah Gillice, Mrs. 
William Livingston, J. O'Connell, Peter Dearness, 
Peter Besnard, sen., heirs Michael McGuirk (two), 
James Peed (two), Ann Jane Ritchie, George Stock- 
ford, Caroline Wood, Hugh Davidson, Susan Chittick 
(two), James and Robert Reed. 

On Orange Street. — William Meneally, John 
Smith, Andrew Gray, M. Hennigar (two), O. D. 
Wetmore, Andrew Kinney (two), Chas. H. Wright, 
James Adams, W. R. McKenzie, D. G. McKenzie, 
W. E. Vroom, Stephen J. and heirs George King, 
Howard D. Troop, C. W. Weldon, A. C. Smith, R. 
R. Sneden, E. J. Berteaux, Joseph Prichard (four), 
Jane Cook, James McLean, Catherine Allen, Thomas 
Johnston, Henry Lawlor, B. Murph}'-, James E. 
Whittaker, J. R. Woodburn, Z. G. Gabel, James 
Estey, Charles Drury, Emma J. Daley, John Sweeny, 
J. W. Hall, George McLeod, J. Albert Venning, 
Robert Blair, Margaret Sinnott, heirs Robert Mc- 
Afee, heirs William Bailey, James Morrison, heirs 
Thomas P. Williams. 



EXTENT OF THE CALAMITY. 209 

0)1 Princess Street. — Alexander Barnliill, W. J. 
Ritchie (Ritchie's Building), E. Thompson, Robert 
Grace, P. Bradley, J. C. Hatheway, M.D., Edward 
Sears, Patrick Fitzpatrick, William Biirtis, Andrew 
Buist, James Hunter, Knox & Thompson, John Burk, 
J. H. Lee, B. Lester Peters and heirs B. Peters, 
Thomas Rodgers, John Anderson (two), John Mur- 
phy, B. Bustin, heirs John Mason, G. Bent, Margaret 
Hunter, John Nugent, Mary Craig, James H. Bart- 
lett, Mrs. David Miller, Thomas Miller, James Bus- 
tin, Frederick Dorman, heirs Thomas P. Williams, 
O. Doherty, Adam Young, C. E. Robinson, J. H. 
Scammell, John Healey, John Gardner, Mrs. Mary 
A. and E. E. Lockhart (two), Ann and heirs of 
George A. Lockhart, R. W. Thorne, H. Williams, 
W. Sandall, Robert McAndrews, James Robinson, 
Susan and heirs J. Johnston, Ann Hamilton and 
heirs Clara Dean, William Fogg, Mary Ann Ells- 
worth, J. V. Troop, Simeon Jones, Alexander Lock- 
hart, trustees Centenary Church (parsonage), W. C. 
Drury, Thomas A. Godsoe, J. W. Scammell, Thomas 
D. Henderson, G. W. Whitney, A. D. Wilson, Mrs. 
Ellen Smith, John Dougherty, Charles Patton, trus- 
tees Joshua S. Turner, Thomas Bustin, P. Halpin, 
Sidney B. Paterson, Barbara Clark, W. C. Godsoe, 
James Truman, J. V. Troop, trustees Centenary 
Church (church), James Leitch, Edward Willis, 



210 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

Joseph Miller, Robert Law, George Thomas, Charles 
Watters (judge), Benjamin Lowe, H. A. Hatheway 
(two), Harriet Truman, W. Walton, George Mat- 
thews (two), S. A. Dixon, E. M. Merritt, Michael 
Thompson, Alexander McL. Stavely, H. S. Gregory, 
Helen York and Capt. Thomas York,. John Ander- 
son, James Sullivan, Michael Thompson, George F. 
Thompson, John J. Munroe, John E. Ganong, T. 
Gray Merritt, Jane Woods, John Burke, Mrs. James 
Drake, George C. Wiggins, W. H. Hayward, M. N. 
Powers, Catherine and heirs Michael DonnoUy, Fred- 
erick A. Wiggins. 

On Leinster Street. — Francis Cassidy, James Mil- 
igan, Lydia Gardner (two), Joseph Edgar, John 
Roop, George V. Nowlin, Mrs. Wallace and George 
W. Masters, Mrs. Samuel Bustin, Alexander McL. 
Seely and trustees of Baptist Church (church), 
Jane Rutherford, H. L. Frances, Mary Murray, Fran- 
cis McDevitt, trustees Yarley School, Mrs. E. Lunt 
and heirs Enoch Lunt, Joseph Lunt, George Y. 
ISTowlin (two), A. W. Masters, George Y. Nowlin 
and Silas H. Brown, James Sullivan, Mrs. Lydia J. 
Calhoun, Joseph Read, W. H. and D. Hayward, A. 
H. Eaton, John Corr, E. K. Foster, John Gallagher, 
Denis Sullivan, heirs William Bailey, Francis Hewitt 
(two), John Roop (two), George W. Masters, G. Y. 
Nowlin, Charles H. Dearborn, G. Merritt, Gilbert 
Murdoch, Thomas C. Humbert, John McBrine. 



EXTENT OF THE CALAMITY. 211 

On Church Street. — George A. Knodell, M. 
Thompson, George Pattison, Thomas S. Wetmore, 
James II. Peters, Mrs. Jane Disbrow, Ellen Maho- 
ney, Edward Maher, Archibald Bowes, Robert T. 
Clinch and heirs E. Barlow. 

On King'^s Square^ south side. — Charles M. Bost- 
wick, Charles Merritt, Trustees Irish Friendly So- 
ciety (Ij^ceum), heirs B. Ansley, James and Robert 
Milligan, C. A. Robertson. 

On King Street. — Mrs. John Gillis and heirs John 
Gillis : occupied by J. K. Storey and Co., dry goods. 
James Manson : by self, dry goods. Robert T. Clinch 
and heirs E. Barlow : by James Adams & Co., dry 
goods, and E. Sharp & Co., dry goods. D. J. Mc- 
Laughlin and heirs Daniel McLaughlin : by H. R. 
Smith, bookstore ; John Mullin, boots and shoes ; J. 
R. Woodburn, photography. Stephen E. Whittaker : 
by J. H. Russell, hotel; W. Delia Torre & Co., 
fancy goods; George Stewart, jun., drugs. James E. 
Whittaker : by Bardsley Brothers, hat-store ; Salmon 
& Cameron, photographers ; Scott & Binning ; W. J. 
McGovern, hats and caps. George Barker : by J. D. 
Lawlor, sewing-machines ; I. J. D. Landry, pianos. 
Mrs. George Taylor : by F. S. Skinner, groceries ; 
Percival & Purchase, fancy goods ; W. C. Gibson, 
fancy goods. John Dougherty : by E. Moore, J. L. 
Thorne, and John Kerr. The other owners on this 



212 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

street burnt out were heirs of William Melick, Mrs. 
John Hay, John Fisher, William Kenned}^, Corpora- 
tion of Trinity Church, Thomas Hale (two), J. S. 
Hall, C. Flood, Samuel Schofield, Thomas Seely, Ann 
Howe, John Mitchell, Mary Fiddler, William Peters, 
Heirs H. Chubb, Joseph Nichols. James R. Ruel and 
Robert Light : by C. & E. Everett, hatters. Mrs. 
Charles C. McDonald (three) : by Adams & Sann- 
ders, boots and shoes ; L. L. Sharpe, watchmaker ; 
W. Waterbury, hardware ; James McConnell, boots 
and shoes. Joseph W. Hall (two) : by H. Kirkpat- 
rick. W. H. Scovil : by P. Sharkey & Son, cloth- 
ing. Robert T. Clinch and heirs E. Barlow: by 
electric telegraph of&ce. 

On Union Street. — Brown estate, Peter and John 
Campbell, Daniel Donovan, Mrs. Lantalum (two), 
J. W. Hall (two), John Gallivan, John McSweeney 
(three), heirs D. McLaughlin, Charles Lawton, Sen- 
ator Dover, J. Fred. Lawton, L. Burns, J. Hegan, John 
Lloyd, Hare heirs,' Mrs. John Bryden, John Higgins, 
W. Wilson, A. Yeats & Sons (three), J. and T. Rob- 
inson (two). 

In the foregoing list, the reader will observe the 
great number of dwellings owned by single indi- 
viduals ; and when he recalls the fact, that, in seven 
cases out of ten, their homes were all they could 
claim as their own, he will begin to comprehend how 



EXTENT OF THE CALAMITY. 213 

great was the loss to the worldng classes of Saint 
John. 

The whole area over which the fire extended is 
stated by the best authority at 290 acres, of which 
83 acres were in Queen's, 73 in Duke's, 95 in Syd- 
ney, and 39 in King's Wards. This estimate cannot 
be more than ten acres from the truth one way or 
the other, and may be accepted as being as nearly 
correct as can be given without an actual re-survey 
of the ground. The number of streets and squares 
over which the fire extended, and which were totally 
or partially destroyed by it, was 39, — Britain, Car- 
marthen, Church, Drury Lane, Georges, Harding, 
King Square, Leinster, Market Square, Mill, North, 
Pagan Place, Princess, Queen Square, Robertson 
Place, Smyth, St. Andrews, Ward, Wentworth, Can 
terbury, Charlotte, Dock, Duke, Germain, Horsfield, 
King, Main, Mecklenburg, Nelson, Orange, Pitt, 
Prince William, Queen Street, ShefSeld, Sydney, St. 
James, Water, North Wharf, South Wharf. 

Twenty-one streets were utterly destroyed, not one 
house being left throughout their whole extent. 
The remainder, with the exception of King and Pitt 
Streets, had in no case more than a block left ; and in 
most only two or three houses escaped the flames. 
The total length of the streets destroyed was about 
ten miles. 



214 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

The following is an estimate of the number of per- 
sons who resided in the burnt district, based on the 
census of 1871 : Queen's Ward, 5,483; Duke's Ward, 
4,678; Sydney Ward, 2,530; King's Ward, 1,500; 
Total 14,191. 

The number of families burnt out is estimated at 
2,780, and the dwellings consumed at 2,000. 

The following is a list of the number of establish 
ments in the several lines of business designated 
which were destroyed by the fire : Manufacturers, 20 
architects, 4 ; auctioneers, 7 ; bakers, 11 ; banks, 5 
bankers, private, 4 ; barristers, 80 ; blacksmiths, 10 
block and pump makers, 8; boarding-houses, 55 
boat-builders, 5 ; book-binders, 5 ; book-stores, 7 
boot and shoe makers, 38 ; boot and shoe stores, 14 
brass-founders, 6 ; builders, 27 ; cabinet-makers, 9 
clothiers, 29 3 commission-merchants, 93 ; confection- 
ers, 6; dentists, 9; druggists, 8; dry goods (whole- 
sale), 14; dry goods (retail), 22; dining and oyster 
saloons, 10 ; Hour-dealers, 32 ; fruit dealers, 7 ; gro- 
cers (wholesale), 40; grocers (retail), 102; gas-fit- 
ters and plumbers, 9 ; hairdressers, 13 ; hardware 
stores, 8 ; hotels, 14 ; insurance-agents, 29 ; iron-mer- 
chants, 8; liquor-dealers (wholesale), 27; liquor- 
dealers (retail), 116; livery stables, 8; lumber-mer- 
chants, 12 ; marble-works, 6 ; merchant-tailors, 36 ; 
newspapers, 7; painters, 13; photographers, 6; 



EXTENT OF THE CALAMITY. 215 

physicians and surgeons, 15 ; printers (job-work), 10 ; 
riggers, 7 ; sailmakers, 5 ; ship-chandlers, 14 ; ship- 
smiths, 8 ; stove-dealers, 8 ; tobacconists, 7 ; under- 
takers, 4 ; watchmakers and jewellers, 12. 

The above forms a pretty long list, and will give 
some idea of what the mere losses in stocks must 
have been, exclusive of buildings. We must confess 
ourselves without data at present to estimate these 
losses accurately. No average can be struck among 
establishments which vary so much in character and 
extent ; and there is no means at present of summing 
up the individual losses, for even the insurance- 
agents, with all the appliances at their command, 
have not yet got through their work, and many were 
not insured at all. 

The loss *of public buildings was severe. Three 
theatres were destroyed ; viz., the Academy of Mu- 
sic, Dramatic Lyceum, Dock-street Opera House. 

The number of places of public worship destroyed 
was 13, divided among the denominations as follows : 
4 Baptist, 3 Presbyterian, 3 Methodist, 2 Episcopal, 
1 Christian. 

The other buildings of a public character were the 
Custom House, Savings Bank, Post Office, City 
Building, Wiggins Orphan Institution, Victoria 
School, Temperance Hall, Home for the Aged, Prot- 
estant Orphan Asylum, Deaf and Dumb Institution, 



216 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

St. Malachi's Hall, R. C. Temperance Hall, Gram- 
mar School building, Varley Scliool, National School 
building, besides a large number of other school- 
buildings throughout the city. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE DEAD AND WOUNDED. 

The Number of Deaths unknown. — Eighteen suddenly killed. — 
Deaths in the Hospital. — Mention of Individual Cases. — Acci- 
dental burning. — The List of the Injured. — The Dependent 
Families. 

npHE number of deaths reported by the local press 
"*- was astonishingly small in view of the extreme 
danger which threatened the whole people; and 
there may have been several deaths which would not 
become known until months or years of absence con- 
firmed the suspicion. A writer in the Saint John 
" Globe " gave an account of the dead and wounded, 
which was as nearly complete as such an account 
could well be. He said that eighteen persons, at 
least, died sudden deaths in connection with the fire. 
Out of these only eight were taken to the dead- 
house, and only two inquests were held; the coro- 
ner deeming it unnecessary to hold an inquiry in the 
other cases. Among the first to be killed were Gar- 
ret Cotter and Peter McGovern, who were killed by 

217 



218 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

the cornice falling off Adams's building. Cotter was 
a young man, a cutter by trade, working in Mr. 
J. S. May's. He lived in Crown Street with his 
widowed mother, his father having been killed many 
years ago on the railway. Peter McGovern was an 
old man, and lived with his family on the Straight 
Shore. In the Reed House on Main Street, Lower 
Cove, three ladies were burned to death. These were 
Mrs. Reed, mother of ex-Mayor Reed, and the Misses 
Clark, Mr. Reed's aunts. Mr. John E. TurnbuU and 
others made desperate efforts to save the ladies ; but 
all attempts were unavailing. Their bodies were 
never recovered. Capt. William Firth, the well- 
known ship-chandler, also met his death in the flames. 
His remains were found in Prince William Street, 
near Barnes's Hotel. He left a wife and family. 
Mr. Samuel Corbett, cabinet-maker, on Prince Wil- 
liam Street, is among the missing, and there is no 
doubt whatever that he met a horrible death. Mr. 
Joseph Bell, painter, cannot be found ; and he, too, 
has become another victim to the terrible disaster. He 
was a married man. Two persons were drowned in 
the harbor while endeavoring to save their property in 
boats ; the bottom of the craft breaking, and the boat 
filling. So great was the excitement, that, although 
the boat was only a few yards from the vessels in the 
stream, both of its occupants had sunk before any 



THE DEAD AND WOUNDED. 219 

effort was made to rescue them. These were James 
Kemp and Thomas Ilohiies. Kemp was a young 
man of about twenty-one years, and was clerk in 
Mr. Michael Farrel's clothing-store, Prince William 
Street. He leaves a wife and one child. Thomas 
Holmes was a lad of about seventeen years of age, 
and lived with his mother on Harding Street. An- 
other victim was Timothy O'Leary, an old man who 
kept an apple-stand at the foot of Dock Street, and 
whose body was never found. There is no ques- 
tion, however, but that he was burned in Drury 
Lane. He leaves a wife. Mrs. Coholan, wife of 
William Coholan, Smyth Street, also perished in the 
flames. Her body was never found. Mrs. Bradley, 
who lived on Princess Street, also met her death on 
this never-to-be-forgotten night. Some human bones 
were found on the door-step of her house, and it 
is thought that these were what remained of her. 
A young man named Richard Thomas was burned. 
His remains were found in the ruins of R,. O'Brien's 
tavern on Germain Street. He was formerly a clerk 
in Fitzpatrick's warehouse. Nelson Street. A young 
man, Robert Fox, belonging to the Marsh Road, is 
known to have perished in the flames. 

Two men have been killed by the walls since the 
day of the fire. The first accident occurred on Fri- 
day afternoon, 22d inst., and was caused by the pre- 



220 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

mature explosion of a blast while tlie post-ofEce walls 
were being thrown down. The victim was an old 
man named John A. Anderson. He was standing 
on his property on Germain Street, almost two hun- 
dred yards away from where the explosion took 
place, when the flying bricks struck and fatally 
injured him. He was taken to the Public Hospital, 
where he died shortly afterwards. The second vic- 
tim was George Gallagher. He was killed on Tues- 
day, 4th inst., on Water Street, a portion of a wall 
that enclosed the vault in Messrs. DeVeber's store 
having fallen on him, and inflicted injuries which 
resulted fatally a few hours afterward in the hos- 
pital. He was a man of about fifty-five years of age, 
and lived with his family in Mr. Thomas McPher- 
son's house on Sewell Street. John Ross, a tailor, 
who was badly burned during the fire, died in the 
Public Hospital. There are one or two others that 
are missing since the fire, and it is supposed they 
have perished in the flames. 

There are a number of persons missing, whose 
friends believe they were killed or burned ; but, as 
there is an uncertainty about it, we omit their names, 
lest some of them should return to their friends, and 
claim to be alive, notwithstanding their death had 
become a matter of history. 

The number of injured ones could not be safely 



THE DEAD AND WOUNDED. 221 

estimated, as there were hosts of people more or less 
injured by the heat, the crumbling walls, or by fall- 
inG^ from roofs and windows. 

At the hospital a large number of persons received 
medical treatment. Many of them had only sus- 
tained slight injuries, and the phj^sician in charge 
did not have time to record their names on his 
books. There were several others who received 
severe injuries, but soon recovered. Indeed, with 
but one or two exceptions, they were soon able to 
leave the building. The names of those who stayed 
at the hospital for any time were Daniel Dooley, 
John Hoss, Patrick Brady, William Coxetter, Wil- 
liam Donahoe, Helen Davidson, Bayard Thompson, 
Walker Lamb (who was injured by an explosion at 
the post-office), Andrew Donovan, Michael Barrett, 
William Porter, Jeremiah Sullivan, Thomas Sulli- 
van, Richard Powers, John Anderson, and George 
Gallagher. The two last were the only persons 
whose injuries resulted fatally. 

Lieut. Joseph Ewing, who sustained severe 
injuries by the explosion at the post-office walls, 
was for a while confined to his house. His in- 
juries consisted of bruises on the head, back, and 
legs. 

There were many women and little children 
dependent upon the earnings of the deceased and 



222' GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

the injured, who were thus doubly afflicted, having 
lost every thing they possessed, together with every 
possible means of obtaining more. Sad, sad, sad, 
must have been those hearts, when they sat in the 
ashes of their homes, and wept for the dead. 



CHAPTER XV. 

PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND SHIPPING. 

Description of the Public Buildings. — Trinity Churcli. — Germain- 
street Baptist Churcli. — Other Church Edifices destroyed. — City 
Hall. — The Custom House. —The Post Office. — Public Halls. — 
Academy of Music. — Temperance Halls. — Masonic HaU. — 
Hotels. — Gas Works. — Shipping destroyed. 

"TTTHAT an enormous task the people have before 
^ ^ them in restoring the city of Saint John to 
its original condition, especially in replacing its pub- 
lic buildings, banks, and commercial structures, will 
be better understood after reading the description of 
those destroyed, as given by the writer mentioned in 
the last chapter. There were many imposing and 
richly decorated edifices, which were the pride and 
ornament of the city and Province. ' 

Trinity Church (Episcopal) was not only the first 
church destroyed by the fire, but was also the oldest 
church in the city, and a memorial of the Loyalist 
colony which founded the city.- Its corner-stone 
was laid by the first colonial bishop in 1788 ; and the 

223 



224 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

diurch was opened on Christmas Day, 1791. The 
material was of wood throughout, and the edifice 
had undergone a great many alterations in its con- 
struction. The spire with its clock was a noted city 
mark. The building had seating room for 1,000 per- 
sons : it was situated about 75 feet from the Ger- 
main-street front of its lot, which continued up to 
Charlotte Street, on which end was a large building 
belonging to the church, and used as a schoolhouse 
and sabbath school. An especial interest centred 
in old Trinity, not only on account of its associa- 
tions, but as being the custodian of the royal arms, 
which, with the bell and organ, were removed into 
it at the time of erection, from the old church on 
Germain Street. Kev. Mr. Brigstocke is rector. The 
royal arms and the communion plate were saved 
from the fire, principally through the exertions of 
Capt. Frank Hazen ; and the arms had been saved 
from a fire in New York and Boston before coming 
to St. John. The church was insured for $20,000 ; 
the Sunday school building, for $3,000; the organ, 
for 11,000. 

' St. James Church (Episcopal) was situated on 
Main Street, between Sydney and Carmarthen 
Streets. It was built of wood, in the Gothic style 
of architecture, in the year 1851, and could seat 
about 500 persons. The cost of construction was 



PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND SHIPPING. 225 

$3,000. A schoolhouse was also in connection with 
the church, and was situated in the rear. Rev. Wil- 
liam Armstrong was rector from the time it was 
built. 

Germain-street Baptist Church faced on Germain 
Street on the corner of Queen Street. It was a 
beautiful brick building, in the Gothic style of archi- 
tecture, and was erected in 1865. The inside was 
tastefully and richly finished, and the edifice was one 
of the finest churches that Saint John contained. 
Its seating capacity was 700, and the original cost 
$21,000. When repaired after a destructive fire a 
few years ago, it was greatly improved. Rev. G. M. 
W. Carey is pastor. 

The Christian Church, a small wooden structure, 
was located on Duke Street, near Sydney. It was 
built in 1854, at a cost of $5,000, and had seating- 
room for 450 persons. The congregation was not a 
very wealthy one ; and, until within the last few 
years, was the only church in Saint John of that par- 
ticular branch of the Baptist denomination. Elder 
George Garraty has been of&ciating minister for the 
last eleven years. It was insured for $3,500. 

Leinster-street Baptist Church was built in 1864, 
at a cost of $12,000. This church also contributed 
towards forming one of those modestly beautiful and 
tastefully adorned places of worship which were a 



226 ' GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. • 

credit to the city. It was built of wood, and could 
give accommodation to 600 persons. - Rev. J. D. 
Pope was pastor. 

St. Andrew's Churcli, Presbyterian, was a wooden 
edifice, occupying the lot next adjoining that of the 
Victoria Hotel on Germain Street. The venerable 
Dr. Burns, who for many years ministered in this 
church, when on his death-bed in Edinburgh, ex- 
claimed, in reference to the Victoria, " Dear me ! 
St. Andrew's Church, which once towered far above 
all on that street, is now itself overshadowed by a 
mammoth tavern ! " It was built in 1816 ; was first 
opened for service in May, 1817, by the above-men- 
tioned clergyman. A very fine organ was put into it 
in 1868, which cost |1,600. The building seated 
1,000 persons. The Rev. William Mitchell, lately 
of Montreal, was pastor. The church was insured 
for $6,000. 

St. David's Church, Presbyterian, was located on 
Sydney Street. It was a fine wooden edifice, capa- 
ble of seating 1,000 persons, and was somewhat 
different from other city churches in its internal 
arrangement, being of circular form. It was built 
in 1848, and cost $12,000. Rev. Dr. Waters was 
the pastor. 

The Reformed Presbyterian Church was built in 
1850, at a cost of about $6,000. It was a wooden 



PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND SHIPPING. 227 

structure, located at tlie corner of Sydney and 
Princess Streets. The cliurch was in connection 
wiili the Reformed Presbyterian Synod of Ireland. 
Although the congregation has been organized for 
the last thirty-six years, they have never had any 
other pastor than the Rev. Alexander McLeod 
Stavely. 

Germain-street Wesleyan Methodist Church, built 
in 1808, and afterwards altered to its recent enlarged 
size, was situated on Germain Street, corner Hors- 
field Street. It was a wooden structure, with seat- 
ing-room for 900 persons. The entire cost of the 
building was about $26,000. It was insured for 
$8,000. In the rear, and accessible from Horsfield 
Street, were a schoolroom, vestry, and class-rooms. 

The Centenary Methodist Episcopal Church was 
one of the most commodious places of worship in 
the Province, giving seating-room to 1,200 people. 
It was erected of wood in 1839, on one of the most 
elevated portions of the city ; and, in the fall of its 
tower, the mariner and harbor pilot lost one of the 
best-known landmarks in the city, and the Wesleyan 
Methodist denomination one of their most valuable 
church projperties. Recently extensive alterations 
and repairs were made upon it. It was partially 
insured. Rev. tloward D. Sprague was pastor. 

The Carmarthen-street Mission House was also 



228 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

swept away. The congregation worshipping there 
had commenced a new church. 

A mission-house on Sheffield Street, erected a year 
and a half ago by the Young Men's Christian Asso- 
ciation, may be counted among the church property. 

While the Catholic Church did not lose heavily in 
a financial point of view, it lost buildings whose his- 
torical associations rendered them dear to the people 
of that denomination. St. Malachi's Hall, or as it 
has long been called, " the old chapel," was the first 
Catholic church built in Saint John. It was over 
sixty years of age. Up to 1855 it was the only 
Cathohc church in the city. In that year the 
cathedral was opened for divine service. St. Mala- 
chi's was afterwards converted into a public hall and 
schoolhouse. The large hall had been used for tem- 
perance meetings, school exhibitions, bazaars, &c. 
The upper portion has been used for schools. A 
few years ago an ell was added to the building. 
Temperance and religious societies met there, and it 
was utilized for many purposes. The building was 
insured for $9,000. 

The old Temperance Hall on Sydney Street was 
built about 1845, when the temperance movement 
was at its height, by the Total Abstinence Relief 
Society. It was owned by the Catholic Church, and 
has been used as a schoolhouse. It was insured for 
f4,000... 



PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND SHIPPING. 229 

Tlie dwelling-liouse on Sydney Street, opposite 
Orange, also belonged to the churcli. It was occu- 
pied as a residence. It originally cost $8,000. There 
was $3,000 insurance on it. It is a remarkable fact 
that the policy expired at noon on the day of the fire. 

The post-office, of which Saint John was proud, 
was without an ec[ual in point of beauty in the Mari- 
time Provinces. The dimensions were fifty feet front 
on Prince William Street, and extending back to 
Water Street ninety feet. The architecture was a 
combination of the various orders of which the style 
denominated " modern " consists. On each side of 
and over the entrances were sixteen red polished 
Bay of Fundy granite columns, of surpassing beauty ; 
excepting these, the building was entirely composed 
of gray sandstone, the whole material being the 
product of native quarries. The building rose three 
stories above Prince William Street, and four stories 
above Water Street, with a mansard roof, surmounted 
by a graceful clock-tower, which rose to an altitude 
of one hundred feet above Prince William Street, and 
one hundred and thirty feet above Water Street, and 
from which an exquisite view of the bay and city 
surroundings was obtainable. This superb structure, 
which was an ornament to the city, as well as an 
honor to its projectors, was erected by the Dominion 
Government at a cost of $150,000, and was first 



230 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

opened to public use in June, 1876. When under 
the full control of the fire, it presented a magnificent 
spectacle. 

Next to the Post-Office, the Custom-House was the 
most important and valuable property owned in the 
city by the Dominion Government. It had a solidly 
built three-story granite front on Prince William 
Street, two hundred and fifty feet long, by ninety-two 
feet deep towards Water Street, which face was built 
of brick four stories high. It was well adapted for its 
particular purpose, and compared favorably with any 
similar building in America. In it were the ofiices 
of the customs, inland revenue, marine and fishery 
department, emigration agent, government engineer, 
shipping office, penitentiary office, gas inspector, and 
weights and measures. A storm signal-station gave 
warning to those interested, of the approach of a 
storm ; there was also a signal-station on the roof, 
which repeated the signals given on Partridge Island 
of "vessels in sight," "pilot wanted," "ship in dis- 
tress," &c. ; and from the roof also a very fine view 
of the harbor and scenery could be secured. ■ The 
building was erected in 1842, by the late John 
Walker, Esq., at a cost of $120,000. The wharf in 
rear of the Custom-House, of which one was adjunct 
to the other, costing $40,000, was badly damaged 
besides. The combustible nature of a great portion 



i- 




PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND SHIPPING. 231 

of tlie goods warelioused in tlic building tended to 
make its destruction most complete. 

The savings bank on the corner of Canterbury 
and Princess Streets was two stories high, built of 
white freestone, and was as tasteful a specimen of 
the ornate style of architecture as Saint John pos- 
sessed. It was not very Iq-rge, but admirably ans- 
wered the purpose of its erection ; and was built in 
1859, at a cost of $20,000, by the directors of the 
savings bank under provincial control, and trans- 
mitted to the Canadian Government in 1867, who 
thoroughly reconstructed the edifice. 

The Dominion Government, which never insured 
its property, lost by the fire about $400,000. 

The City Corporation was a heavy loser by the 
fire. Over $60,000 worth of buildings were burned, 
and these were about half insured. The City Hall 
was a handsome stone building, which cost $23,000 
when purchased from the Commercial Bank. Con- 
siderable mone}^ has since been spent on it in re- 
pairs. It contained the offices of the mayor, common 
clerk, chamberlain, water and sewerage commission- 
ers, clerk to the assessors, city engineer, and super- 
intendent of streets. It was insured for $15,000. 
The police court and station on Chipman's Hill was 
insured for $2,000. The station was a substantial 
brick building ; the police-court was a wooden struc- 
ture. 



232 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

Located on Prince William Street, and next 
adjoining the post-office, stood the old Bank of 
New Brunswick, which was incorporated in 1820. 
This building had been in existence for over fifty 
years, being built in 1826, and had passed on to a 
period of existence later than was attained to by 
any of its founders. The whole of it was devoted 
to the exclusive use of the bank. The structure 
was of stone, with massive columns of the Ionic 
order. 

At the time it was destroyed, it contained over 
830,000,000. 

The building of the Maritime Bank, on Chipman's 
Hill, adjoining the Western. Union Telegraph Office, 
had a beautifully cut gray freestone front, supported 
by a granite basement, and topped with a Mansard 
roof. It was four stories high. Besides the office of 
the Maritime Bank, it contained the offices of the 
Bank of Nova Scotia, the Bank of Montreal, the Sec- 
retary of the Board of School Trustees, Dun, Wy- 
man, & Co.'s mercantile agency, and the Board of 
Trade ; also the offices of Z. Ring, W. H. Purdy, 
and G. Fred. Ring. It was built in 1873, at a cost 
of 160,000. 

The Bank of Nova Scotia was opposite the Bank 
of New Brunswick on Prince William Street. This 
corporation had only just purchased the edifice 



PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND SHIPPING. 233 

known as " Cusliing's Building," at a cost of 815,- 
000. The structure was a plain brick, three stories 
high, and was being put under through renovation 
and repairs at the time of the fire. It had then 
received a mastic coating on the front. The office 
of the bank at time of the fire was in the Maritime 
Bank Building. 

The Academy of Music, situated on Germain 
Street, between Princess and Duke. The Academy- 
was a building which the citizens of Saint John were 
justified in regarding with pride. The original inten- 
tion was the erection of a building that would cost 
about $20,000 ; but after the act was passed, incor- 
porating the Saint John Academy of Music Com- 
pany, with a capital of $20,000, it was subsequently 
amended, and the capital stock increased to $30,000. 
The gentlemen most energetic in promoting the 
scheme were Drs. Keator and Carritte, and Messrs. 
J. W. Beard, Simeon Jones, John Boyd, John Ma- 
gee, H. D. Troop, Hon. T. R. Jones, John Guthrie, 
J. W. Nicholson, T. B. Buxton, J. V. Thurgar, F. P. 
Robinson, J. R. Armstrong, and others. The exte-, 
rior of the building was composed of brick; and the 
dimensions were 200 x 50 feet 10 inches. The front 
was Q^ feet high from the sidewalk to the top of the 
ornamental work rising above the cornice, and was 
divided into three floors — the first being 15, the sec- 



234 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

ond 13, and the third 18 feet. The finish was Italian 
in its general style ; and the main wall of the front 
wa-s covered with a red mastic, which, with the brown 
sandstone trimming, made a very pleasing effect to 
the eye. The main entrance door, 13 x 17 feet, 
was surmounted by a bust of Shakespeare. The 
doors were of solid walnut, weighing about 1,600 
pounds. The seating-capacity of the Academy was 
1,300, but it would hold 1,500. The first floor, or 
parquette, was furnished with opera chairs. The 
number of chairs was 540. The balcony, or first 
gallery, would seat about 400 persons. The second 
gallery had a separate entrance and ticket-office. 
Three proscenium boxes, one above the other, on 
each side of the stage, accommodated five persons 
each. The cost of erection was over 850,000, on 
which there was an insurance of only 812,000. The 
last chosen Board of Directors was as follows: Dr. 
Ring, President; Messrs. Dr. Steeves, John Boyd, 
John Guthrie, and James I. Fellows; J. R. Arm- 
strong, Secretary. 

The Dramatic Lyceum was a building on the 
south side of King's Square. It was erected some 
twenty years ago by Mr. J. W. Lanergan, who was 
determined to furnish a suitable place for theatrical 
representations. 
' The " Opera House " had its location on Dock 



PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND SHIPPING. 235 

Street. It was built by Otis Small, Esq., in 1871, 
and was eighty-three feet front, and three stories 
high above Dock Street, which was equal to five 
stories in the rear. The front was covered with 
mastic, and showed Gothic windows. The lower 
floor was occupied as stores ; and the whole of the 
upper portion was thrown into a high and spacious 
hall, with roof supported by arches resting on col- 
umns, on which the galleries also rested. The sit- 
tings would accommodate about a thousand persons. 
The Victoria Hotel was situated on the corner of 
Germain and Duke Streets, and was a magnificent 
square structure of brick, covered with i^astic ; was 
five stories high above the basement, covered over 
10,000 square feet of ground, and was acknowledged 
to be the finest hotel in the Dominion, both in its 
extent and equipment. The edifice was principally 
in the Italian style of architecture. The basement 
was of dressed granite. Porticos were attached over 
the Germain and Duke Street entrances : these two 
facings, with their pediment window-caps and the 
heavy projecting cornice, gave the exterior a fine 
and imposing effect, while the great height of the 
building made it tower up conspicuously over all 
surrounding objects. The building's capacity al- 
lowed accommodation for over 300 guests, and its 
management required the services of 200 employees 



236 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

during the summer season. The hall was 40 x 20 
feet, and the vestibule 20 x 15 feet, the floors of which 
were inlaid with marble. The dining-room, 40 x 60 
feet, was elaborately elegant, and could seat 200 per- 
sons. The public parlor, on the second floor, was 
19 X 100 feet ; and private parlors with bed-rooms 
attached were numerous ; while all the rooms were 
large, airy, and magnificently famished, and fitted 
with all modern acquisitions of hotel luxur}^. The 
sleeping-apartments included 232 rooms, irrespective 
of private suites of chambers. The whole number 
of guest-rooms was 200. Water was introduced 
into every joom. A steam elevator gave conveyance 
from one floor to the other ; and the building was 
heated by steam throughout, the rooms being pro- 
vided with grates also. The whole cost of the 
building was $165,000, and the furnishing about 
165,000. The former was insured for $70,000, and 
the latter for 130,000. 

The Royal Hotel was situated on Prince William 
Street, directly opposite the Custom House, and was 
formerly known as Stubbs' Hotel. It was a three- 
story wooden building, and a popular resort for 
strangers. 

Barnes' Hotel was a large three-story brick build- 
ing, with mastic front. 

Saint John Hotel was situated on the corner of 



PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND SHIPPING. 237 

King and Charlotte Streets, and in former times 
was the '' Victoria " of the city, — the centre for all 
important gatherings, the colonial governor's head- 
quarters when he visited Saint John, the scene of 
festivities, balls, and official dinners. The Masonic 
Order held lodge-meetings therein. 

Among the other hotels destroyed were the Bay 
View, Acadia Hotel, Fisher House, Gordon House, 
Isbister House, Boston House, and other lesser 
establishments. 

The Wiggins Orphan Asylum was a splendid 
edifice on St. James Street, erected through the 
munificence of Stephen Wiggins, Esq., at a very 
heavy cost. It had been in operation only a brief 
period. 

The Protestant Orphan Asylum was a brick build- 
ing, situated on the corner of Carmarthen and 
Britain Streets. 

The Masonic fraternity^ occupied the front portion 
of the upper story of a building on Princess Street, 
where there were two lodge-rooms and several ante- 
rooms, whilst the encampments of Knights Templars 
and the bodies of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish 
Rite had their ante-rooms, armories, &c., on the story 
below. For nearly twenty-one years this building 
was the headquarters of Freemasonry in New Bruns- 
wick, the craft having previously held its meetings 



238 ' GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

in Marshall's Building, corner Princess and Charlotte 
Streets, which also fell a victim to the fire. On 
Sept. 24, 1856, the late Grand Master Keith of 
Halifax, then Provincial Grand Master of Nova 
Scotia and New Brunswick, dedicated the hall to 
Freemasonry. 

Not a thing in the room was saved. All the valu- 
able treasures were burned. The societies burned 
out were, — 

Albion Lodge ; . Saint John Lodge ; Hibernia 
Lodge ; Union Lodge of Portland ; New Brunswick 
Lodge ; Leinster Lodge ;' Carleton Royal Arch Chap- 
ter; New Brunswick Boyal Arch Chapter; Saint 
John's Council Royal and Select Ma^sters; New 
Brunswick Council Royal and Select Masters; Moore 
Conclave Knights R. C. of Rome and Constantino; 
Encampment of Saint John, Knights Templars; 
Union De Molay Encampment, Knights Templars; 
Harington Lodge of Perfection, A. & A. Rite; 
Harington Chapter, Rose Croix, A. & A. Rite ; The 
Royal Order of Scotland; New Brunswick Consist- 
ory S. P. R. S., 32°. 

The Grand Lodge of New Brunswick was also a 
heavy loser, as its valuables, together with all of the 
books, — and there were many rare and curious ones, 
— were destroyed. Lideed, so complete was the 
destruction, that not even a copy of the proceedings 
of Grand Lodge was to be found. 



PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND SniPFING. 239 

The buildings in wliicli the following societies held 
their meetings were also destroyed; viz., Sons of 
Temperance, United Temperance Association, Good 
Templars, Knights of P3^thias, Temple of Honor, 
Orange Lodges, Irish Friendly Society, Shipwrights' 
Union, and the Odd Fellows ; the latter having an 
encampment and three lodges burned out, and their 
furniture, organs, regalia, &c., destroyed. 

The gas-works and wharves were destroyed, with a 
loss that cannot safely be estimated, as the property 
was of such a nature that more or less of it was 
saved, although the necessary loss was very great. 

The vessels destroyed were those lying in the 
Market Slip. They were unable to move out ; and 
their owners were obliged to stand by and see the 
earnings of a lifetime swept away in a moment. The 
vessels burned were, — 

The schooner "Angle Russell," 25 tons, hailing 
from Canning, N.S. She had discharged a cargo of 
fish. Owned and commanded by Capt. Boylan. 

The schooner "Brill," 74 tons, owned by the 
McSherry estate. Saint John. She had on board the 
balance of a cargo from Boston for Fredericton. 

The schooner " Brilliant " was a fishing- vessel of 
18 tons, owned and commanded by Capt. Patch of 
Campobello. 

The schooner '' Bear River," 37 tons, was owned in 



240 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

Bear River, N.S., by Capt. Winchester and others. 
She had an outward bound cargo. 

The schooner " Ella P.," 23 tons, hailing from Bar- 
rington, N.S., and owned and commanded by Capt. 
Thurber, had a cargo of fish. 

The schooner " Eliza Jane," 27 tons, hailing from 
Bay Shore, N.S., had a cargo of salt. Vessel owned 
and commanded by Capt. Bent. 

The schooner '^ L. L. Wadsworth," of Westport, 
N.S., was a little fishing-schooner of 12 tons, owned 
by Capt. Brown, and was loaded with fish. 

The schooner " Lily," of Weymouth, N.S., was of 8 
tons register ; was owned and commanded by Capt. 
Israel. 

The schooner "Martha Rowan," 25 tons, belong- 
ing to Westport, had a cargo of codfish. Capt. Peters 
was master and owner. 

The schooner " Parrot," 27 tons, hailed from Saint 
George, N.B., and was commanded by Capt. Hutton. 
She had a full cargo, including a piano. 

The schooner " Star," 13 tons, Capt. Benson, hailed 
from Westport, and had a cargo of fish. 

The wood-boat "Burnett," 46 tons, Capt. Reed; 
wood-boat " Linda," 26 tons ; wood-boat " Messen- 
ger," 33 tons ; wood-boat " President," 46 tons, Capt. 
Orchard, were all loaded with cord-wood. 

Four scows — two of them owned by Mr. Raynes 



PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND SHIPPING. 241 

of Fairville, and two by Mr. Joseph Armstrong — 
were also destroyed. 

The schooner " Justice," of Westport, was badly 
burned, but was hauled out in time to prevent total 
destruction. 

The schooner " George Calhoun," lying in Walk- 
er's Slip, had her mainmast burned. Other vessels 
also received slight damage. 

The total value of vessels and cargoes was about 
$40,000. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

FRIENDS IN NEED. 

First Assurances of Help. —The Liberality of the People. —Tele- 
grams from Cities in America and Europe. — Eeturning Past 
Kindnesses. — The Behavior of the Recipients. — List of Contrib- 
utors. — The Amounts given and received. — How Chicago, 
Boston, and London responded. — Other Cities and Towns. 

rr^HE generous and liearty manner in which the 
-*- cities of England, the United States, and the 
Dominion, hurried forward supplies for the suffering 
people of Saint John will never cease to awaken 
thankfulness in the hearts of the recipients, and will 
serve to bind the English-speaking people of the 
earth closer in bonds of Christian fellowship. For 
when the half-clad, starving people, actually without 
food for another meal, could see no way out of the 
pit of despair into which they had so suddenly fallen, 
and when homeless ones wandered about their heaps 
of ashes, half longing for death, then, almost as soon 
as the wires told that a fire was raging, the kind- 

243 



FRIENDS IN NEED. 243 

hearted people in distant countries and states sent 
words of sympathy, accompanied, as all true sympathy 
is accompanied, with remittances of money, food, and 
clothing. Oh, it was a grand and noble exhibition 
of human . kindness ! It was noble because it came 
from honest, sincere friends. It was grand because 
such acts toward such a deserving people show the 
latent power which rests in union of states and na- 
tions, and bring nearer that great day when the sym- 
pathy of the world will be all the insurance men will 
need. North, South, East, and West sent messages 
of good cheer, bidding the saddened populace to take 
courage, for help was at hand. It would be utterly 
impossible to mention in a book of this size all the 
acts of kindness done by strangers, or to enumerate 
the names of donors. It was so universal, so sponta- 
neous, that we can only outline it. Would that all 
those messages of love could be written in letters 
of living light, so high and so conspicuous that all 
nations could read them, and profit thereby ! From 
the noblest sovereign which England ever had, from 
titled lords, members of Parliament, members of 
Congress, mayors of cities, and numerous individuals, 
came the despatches showing that the industrious, 
peaceful citizens of that city had friends all over 
the world, who were thinking of them, and desired 
to help them. These notifications and queries were 



244 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

sent to the lieutenant-governor, to the major, to the 
chief engineer, to the chief of police, to the United 
States consul, to members of the city government, 
to well-known merchants, to ship-owners, and to 
many others ; and, as no one had been at that early 
hour selected to receive the unexpected contribu- 
tions, the shipment of supplies was made to a vast 
number of different persons. Thus did Saint John 
find a fitting return for her great liberality and 
charity when Chicago, Boston, Quebec, and many 
other cities were in a like extremity. 

We insert here a number of the messages verbatim, 
in order to convey to the reader a more correct idea 
of that outburst of sympathy than any language but 
their own could convey. 

Her Majesty Queen Victoria sent the following, 
which was received by the people with marked feel- 
ings of thankfulness and respect : — 

I am commanded by the Queen to express the 
great sorrow with which she has heard of the ter- 
rible calamity that has befallen the city of Saint 
John, and her Majesty's sympathy for the sufferers. 

A. Mackenzie. 



Ebedekicton, June 21. 
To Mayor Earle. 

Relief committees organized ; propose sending spe- 



FRIENDS IN NEED, 245 

cial train, with provisions to-night : will wire you 
when train leaves. 

E. L. Wetmobe, Chairman, 

Portland, Me., June 21. 
To THE Mayor of Saint John. 

Shall forward you on behalf of our citizens, by 
this evening's steamer, all the cooked provisions and 
hard bread we could gather. Please telegraph me 
what you need most, — whether provision, blankets, 
and the like, or money, 

M. M. Butler, Mayor, 

Toronto, June 21. 
To THE President of the Board of Trade. 

At a meeting of the Commercial Exchange to-day, 
the following resolution was proposed and carried: 
moved by W. H. Howland, and seconded by Mr. 
Worts, " That the members of this association de- 
sire to express their earnest and heartfelt sympathy 
with the people of Saint John, who have suffered 
from the disastrous fire in their city, and express 
their willingness to aid and assist the ruined and 
homeless sufferers by that calamity." You are 
hereby authorized to draw upon me at sight for 
$600, to be distributed for the benefit of the desti- 
tute sufferers. Egbert Spratt, 



246 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

New York, Jnne 21. 
To C. U. Hanfokd. 

The " Flamborougb's " sailing is postponed till 

the 26th for supplies. Notify the merchants. The 

freight is uncharged. 

A. E. OUTERBRIDGE. 

Toronto, June 21. 
To President of the Board of Trade. 

Draw at sight for fl,000, probably more to follow, 

in aid of the suffering. 

A. M. Smith, President Board Trade, 

Ottawa, June 21, 
To Mayor Earle. 

Tents from Halifax and Quebec have been ordered 

at once. The Halifax train to-night is ordered to 

wait for them, so as to have them in Saint John 

to-morrow morning. Application for assistance will 

be considered by the government immediately, and 

I will wire 3^ou to-morrow morning. This is an 

unprecedented calamity for New Brunswick, which 

is painful to think of. Wire for any thing you 

think I can do for you. 

Isaac Btjrpee. 

Montrkal, June 21. 
To the Mayor of St. John. 

You will have received by this time a message 

from the mayor of Montreal, informing you that a 

train-load of provisions leaves Montreal this evening, 



FRIENDS IN NEED. 247 

and will be pushed through by every possible exer- 
tion, so as to arrive at Saint John at the earliest pos- 
sible moment. The contents of the train will be 
delivered on your order, and I have given directions 
that delivery is to be made at whatever hour of the 
night it may arrive. Mr. Luttrell will advise you 
of the probable arrival of the train ; and, if you will 
give the necessary orders for its delivery, the con- 
tents will be distributed the moment the train ar- 
rives. C. J. Bkydges. 

Montreal, June 21. 
To S. Z. Earle, Mayor, 

Relief committee forwarded to you to-night, will 
be in Saint John to-morrow night, special train of 
provisions : — 

1,000 barrels flour, 100 barrels beef, 100 barrels 
pork, 150 barrels corn-meal, 150 barrels oatmeal, and 
a car-load each of bread and biscuit. This is to be 
distributed by your relief committee. 

J. L. Beaudey, Mayor, 

Manchester, Eng., June 21. 
To Daniel & Boyd, St. John. 

Draw on us for one hundred pounds for relief of 

sufferers. Much sympathy, McLaken. 

Manchester, Eng., June 21. 
To Daniel & Boyd, St. John. 

Sorry for your calamity. Can I do any thing for 

you ? Oeam. 



248 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

CoGisrAc, Fkance. 
To KiNNEAR Brothers. 

Subscribe two hundred dollars to relief fund. 

George Sayer & Co. 

LoNDOK, via Halifax, June 22. 
Dr. Bayard. 

Deep sympathy with you and all sufferers. Draw 

on me in New York for $250 to relieve distress 

according to your judgment. 

John T. Lord. 

PiCTOu, K.S., June 22. 
W. C. Watson, St. John. 

New Caledonia Club sympathizes with their 
friends and your city in your awful calamity, and 
send to your care, by to-day's express, provisions and 
clothing for the destitute. The town sends to-mor- 
row. Daniel T. Hislop. 

Five barrels of flour were received by Mr. S. T. 
King from James A. Lee, Calais, Me., for the 
sufferers. They were handed over to the Relief 
Committee. 

Houlton's contribution was a good one. Mr. John 
McMaster of that place, who was in town, left $250 
in cash with Rev. Dr. Maclise, and 160.60 in goods 
from the people of Houlton, for Saint John's suffer- 
ing citizens. 



FRIENDS IN NEED. 249 

R. S. Mackintosh, produce-merchant, writing to 
J. S. Turner, made the following offer : " Use $50 in 
any way you think advisable to relieve the sufferers." 

Bathurst, June 23. 

Bathurst will forward contribution to your relief 
committee ; $400 were subscribed at meeting last 
evening ; first instalment by to-day's train. 

K. F. BuEKS. 

Toronto, June 23. 
To Mayor Saint John. 

Let me know certain, to-night, what you most 

need in new clothing, household goods, or any thing 

that this city can supply to help you, and there will 

be immediate response. Outside many subscriptions. 

David Cowan, Chairman of Citizens. 

BowMAKSViLLE, Ont., June 23. 
To Mayor of Saint John. 

Our company will send fifty bedsteads and chairs 

for benefit of sufferers : will they be of any benefit ? 

F. F. MacAethub, 

Manager Upper Canada Furniture Co, 

Detroit, Mich., June 23. 
Hon. S. L, Tilley, Lieut. -Gov. of Neiu Brunswick. 

National Division S. of T., North America, in an- 
nual assembly, extends you and citizens of Saint John 
assurance of sincere sympathy in this hour of trial, 



250 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

and in event of funds being necessary for relief of 
distress, draw on National Division for ^300 as a first 
instalment. Louis Wagner, M. W. P. 

Samuel W. Hodges, M, W. Scribe. 

Chicago, June 23. 
To Mayor Earle. 

The Produce Exchange of the city has deposited 

with the Bank of Montreal to your credit $1,000. 

John C. Cowles, Secretary/ and Treasurer. 

Chicago, June 23. 
To Dr. Earle, Mayor. 

The committee of the Board of Trade have col- 
lected from members over $5,000, and now at your 
credit with Bank of Montreal. "We are collecting. 

W. RiCHAEDSON, Chairman. 

London, June 22. 
To His Honor Gov. Tilley. 

Please cable immediately, whether fire caused great 
distress among poor; whether circumstances, suf- 
ferers, and extent of calamity, render assistance 
abroad necessary. Rose. 

Bangor, Me., June 23, 
Park A. Melville, Daily Telegraph. 

Let me know, soon as possible, what is most needed 

by the Knights of Pythias burned out. 

A. F. Snow, D. D. Grand Chancellor, 

Nbremhega Lodge, K. of P. 



FRIENDS IN NEED. 251 

MoNOTON, June 23. 
To William Elder. 

At a meeting of the employees of the mechanical 

department of the railway in Moncton on Saturday, 

they voted unanimously to give one day's pay to the 

sufferers by the late fire in Saint John. 

Montreal, June 25. 
To John Boyd. 

St. Andrew's Church, Church of Scotland, collected 
impromptu yesterday over $250 for the sufferers. 
We think of sending it chiefly in made-up clothing. 
Can you suggest any thing better ? Would you under- 
take distribution among most necessitous ? 

Andeew McLean, 
Rev. Gavin Laing. 

Boston, June 25. 
To J. E. Irvine, President Y. M. C. A, 

We send clothing for distribution among sufferers ; 

draw on us also for $100. 

Geoege a. Miner, 

President Boston Y. M. (7. A, 

Toronto, June 25. 
To Stewart & White, 

Would 100 good common bedsteads be accepted 
from us for the deserving poor ? Grand Trunk carry 
free. Answer. R. Hay & Co, 



252 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOEN. 

Glasgow, June 25, 
Daniel & Boyd, St. John, N.B. 

Deep sympathy. Lord provost calls meeting 

Thursday, to give it expression, 

William McLaeen & Sons, Glasgow, 

BosTox, June 25. 
To George E. Snider, Saint John. 

I start for Saint John this afternoon, on board 
United States revenue cutter " Gallatin," in charge 
of supplies from Boston Kelief Committee. Hope to 
arrive to-morrow or Wednesday morning. Inform 
mayor. Stantum Blake. 

Mr. Snider also received from Hill and Berry, 
Fredericton, |100 for the relief fund. 

Toronto, June 25. 
To the Mayor of Saint John. 

Please inquire of the Knights of Pythias if they 

require relief, and if so to what extent, from their 

brethren in Ontario ; and tell them to communicate 

with De. John S. King, 

G-raTid Chancellor for Ontario, 

Eastport, June 25. 
To the Mayor of Saint John. 

Please accept for sufferers of fire, from Boynton 

High School, Eastport, 12.38. 

Hundreds of like messages crowded the wires, of 



FRIENDS IN NEED. 253 

which a partial summary is added, although it in- 
cludes but a small proportion of the whole number 
received. 

Charlottetown sent word that she would raise 
86,000, and advised the mayor that |400 were sent 
by mail. 

D. S. Babcock, president of the Stonington and 
Providence lines, offered free transportation from New 
York to Boston, of all supplies for the sufferers. 

A. H. Chandler telegraphed that Dorchester would 
send 1250 more per Monday's express. 

The Chicago Clearing House Associated Banks 
telegraphed they gave |1,000 ; the Chicago Produce 
Exchange, |1,000 ; and the Chicago Board of Trade 
$5,000. 

Annapolis Royal subscribed |1,242, and more was 
coming ; Amherst sent 5^1,100 worth of provisions ; 
St. Andrews, N.B., forwarded $400, with offers of 
clothing; Sackville sent 25 barrels of potatoes, and 
15 lots of other provisions. 

The treasurer of the counties of Leeds and Gren- 
ville, Brockville, sent |200. 

The mayor of Bath, Me., said, Draw for $1,000, 
contributed by the citizens, and asked how |300 
additional should be expended. 

The mayor of Sarnia, Ont., sent word to draw 
on him at sight for 150, the contribution of Huron 
Lodge, No. 10, K. of P. 



254 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

The mayor of Brookville, N.S., said, Draw for 
i500, and the mayor of Brantford for |1,000. 

William Cummings & Son, of Truro, sent a case 
and parcel of clothing, &c. 

A bale of blankets was said to be on the way from 
D. Mclnnes & Co., Montreal. 

J. F. Power & Co., Montreal, sent 50 barrels of 
flour. 

Canning, N.S., sent a check for 1271.90 ; the 
Union Bank of Prince Edward Island, 15,000 ; and 
the Amherst relief fund, $500 on account. 

Notice was received that the following had been 
sent, via the Intercolonial R.R., from the military 
district stores at Quebec : 372 circular tents, 7 mar- 
quee hospital tents, 1,247 gray blankets, 442 valises, 
and a lot of tent poles, pins, &c. 

Joseph Robinson telegraphed John Boyd that Tor- 
onto donated 170,000. 

W. C. Finlay, Hamilton Board of Trade, sent the 
mayor $1,000 cash. 

Treasurer of Union Stock Yards, Chicago, 111., 
sent mayor |1,200. 

James Goldie, Guelph, authorized Rev. Mr. Mitch- 
ell to draw on him for $100 to assist homeless. 

Imperial Insurance Company, London, authorized 
mayor and W. Elder to draw at sight for X500. 

Maiden, of Pembroke, Ont., authorized draft for 
$300. 



FRIENDS IN NEED. 255 

Mayor Prince of Boston telegraphed to Mayor 
Earle to draw immediately for 15,000. 

Isaac Burpee telegraphed to the mayor that the 
Dominion Government would advance $20,000 for 
food and clothing. 

T. Williams, accoutant railway, Prince Edward 
Island, telegraphed mayor that the railway employees 
had raised 1700 for sufferers of Saint John. '•'- Draw 
immediately." 

F. B. Edgecombe, Fredericton, telegraphed to the 
ma3^or that Fredericton had sent a further gift of two 
car-loads of cooked provisions and 700 loaves, and 
second load would be sent at once. 

Brown, collector. North Sydney, telegraphed that 
S. T. Robinson of Toronto Coal Co. offered 150 tons 
coal. 

E. A. Barnard, Calais and St. Stephen, telegraphed 
Samuel T. King that he had forwarded two barrels 
of good hams to him for the sufferers. 

A. J. Drexel, treasurer, Philadelphia, telegraphed 
to the mayor to draw at once for $3,000. " More 
coming." 

Mayor Waller, Ottawa, telegraphed to mayor to 
draw for $2,000. 

Angus Morrison, mayor of Toronto, telegraphed 
mayor to draw from ten to twenty thousand dollars, 
as needed, and that his council would meet forthwith 



256 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

to make a grant. According to Josepli Robinson's 
telegram to John Boyd, the grant made was 170,000. 

Collector Bowen, Sydney, C.B., requested the 
mayor to draw f400 through Bank of Nova Scotia. 

John B. McLean, New York, offered assistance, 
and asked what was most needed. 

Thus they came from all directions and in all 
forms, as will be more fully seen by consulting the 
list which we print at the end of this chapter. The 
cities of Chicago and Boston were especially gener- 
ous, the latter sending $50,000 ; and their contribu- 
tions, together with all the offerings from the United 
States, were received with especial thankfulness by 
the people. A resolution passed by the Episcopal 
Synod of Fredericton very fittingly expressed the 
feeling of the citizens of the Provinces, and will 
serve as an illustration : — 

^^ Resolved, That the Lord Bishop of Fredericton, together 
with the clergy and lay members of the Church of England, 
now in synod assembled, desire to place on record an expres- 
sion of their warmest sympathy with those who have suffered 
from the late disastrous fire in the city of Saint John. They 
deeply regret the loss incurred by their fellow-churchmen in 
the parishes of Trinity and St. James, by the destruction of 
their churches, and especially that of Trinity Church, one of 
the oldest in this diocese. The members of this synod desire 
also to acknowledge with deep gratitude to Almighty God, the 
comparatively small loss of life, and the prompt and generous 



FRIENDS IN NEED. 257 

aid to the relief of the sufferers from various cities in this 
Dominion, as well as from England and elsewhere, and pre- 
eminently from so many portions of the United States." 

The people of Chicago could not forget the kind- 
ness of their brothers in Saint John, and were 
aroused to action by such paragraphs as this in their 
daily papers : — 

" Our friends of Saint John, N.B., are in sore 
trouble. A fire more ruinous to their city than the 
great fire was to. Chicago, because a far greater pro- 
portion of it is in ashes, has left thousands of them 
within sight of actual starvation. When Chicago 
was burned, the citizens of Saint John contributed 
ten thousand dollars to feed and shelter our scorched 
and scattered people. If we fail to return that 
money, with interest, and with the addition also of 
a thank-offering to God for our own restored pros- 
perity, we are not the people they took us to be, 
when, in our sore distress, they sent us their gener- 
ous gift." 

The inhabitants of Boston, too, remembered Saint 
John's proffered liberality, and returned it in a man- 
ner becoming an honest and generous community. 
The following item in a Saint John paper tells 
in what manner Boston responded to the call for 
aid: — 

" The American revenue cutter ' Gallatin ' arrived 



258 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

here yesterday afternoon, on her second trip, with 
supplies for the sufferers by the late fire, from Bos- 
ton, Mass. The ' Gallatin ' came to anchor off Reed's 
Point about four o'clock, where she was boarded by 
the harbor-master, and brought into the wharf that 
is used by the ' Empress.' As soon as she was se- 
curely moored to the wharf, the large number of 
people who had gathered together to witness her 
arrival gave three ringing cheers for ' the steamer 
" Gallatin " and our kind friends in Boston.' Shortly 
after her arrival. Mayor Earle, accompanied by some 
of the relief committee, were actively at work con- 
veying the stores to the Rink, where they will be 
added to the common store." 

The interest awakened in London by the great 
calamity was exceedingly complimentary to both 
cities, — the one for deserving, and the other for 
unselfish bestowing. A statement appeared in the 
London papers, June 28, signed by the Honorable 
Secretary and Honorable Cashier, as follows : — 

" The Lord Mayor, in view of the recent calami- 
tous fire at Saint John, N.B., by which disaster, 
according to official advices just received, 12,000 
people have become destitute, and property of the 
value of 112,000,000 has been destroyed, and at the 
request of an influential deputation, will be glad to 
receive at the Mansion House funds in aid of the 
sufferers. 



FRIENDS IN NEED. 259 

" The following bankers will also receive subscrip- 
tions : viz., Messrs. Glyn, Mills, & Co., bankers to 
the fund; Messrs. Williams, Deacon, & Co.; the 
London and Westminster Bank, the Union Bank of 
London, the Bank of Montreal, and the Bank of 
British North America. 

" The distribution of the fund will be intrusted to 
the lieutenant-governor of New Brunswick, the 
mayor of Saint John, and the president of the Board 
of Trade, with power to associate any other gentle- 
men to aid them in their work." 

And over two thousand pounds was at the same 
time acknowledged. 

We give here the entire list of contributions 
received up to July 9, following the fire, which 
includes about one-half of the actual subscriptions, 
the balance of which was probably forwarded after- 
wards. 

The following are the sums received in the order 
of their receipt : — 

Sons of Temperance, Detroit, $300; Halifax, ^10,000; Hah- 
fax boy, $1.08; Fredericton, $8,000; Philadelphia Maritime 
Exchange, $2,000; Boston, $5,000; J. H. Rogers, Boston, $100; 
Chicago Union Stock Yards, $1,200; Dominion Government, 
$20,000; Sarnia, Ontario, $1,000; Whitby, Ontario, $200; Lon- 
don, Ontario, $5,000; Amherst, $1,000; Parrsboro', $100; Boston 
Felt Roofing Co., $100; Imperial Fire Insurance Co., $2,433.35; 
F. Mehan, $5; E. Williston, Miramichi, $50; Bank British 



260 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

North America, $2,433.35; Chicago Clearing House, $1,000; 
Bathurst, $400; Brantford, Ontario, $1,000; Sarnia, $50; 
Bath, Me., $1,300; Brockville (Midland counties), $200; 
Dorchester, $200; Sionington and Providence Line Steamers, 
$500; St. Andrews, $400; Charlottetown, $6,000; Lawrence, 
Mass., $465; Portland, Me., $2,000; Moncton, $200; Amherst, 
$500; Peterboro', Ontario, $200; Boston, $5,000; Dorchester, 
$410; Sayer& Co., $200; Toronto, $20,000; Chicago Produce 
Exchange, $1,000; Chicago Board of Trade, $5,000; Augusta, 
Me., $1,000; Canning, N.S., $279.90; Yarmouth, N.S., $1,500; 
Brookville, N.S., $5.23; Annapolis, $500; Bell of Dublin, 
$486.56; Clark, Dodge, & Co., New York, $237.19; Mrs. M. D. 
Smith, Ipswich, $25; Sherbrooke, Quebec, SI, 000; St. An- 
drews, $150; N. W. Pace & Co., Boston, $100; Gorham Brad- 
shaw, $100; John Ilawson, $5; R. S. Macintosh, $50; St. 
George, $200; John C. Johnston, $250; Sackville, $235; 
Newcastle and Douglastown, $900; Gait, Ontario, $500; 
Guelph, Ontario, $1,000; North Sydney, C.B., $400; Canada 
Screw Co., Dundas, Ontario, $200; Boynton High School, 
Eastport, $2.38; D. J. Odell, $10; Hallowell, Me., $500; 
Accident Insurance Co. of Canada, $200; Windsor, N. S., 
$3,000; Woodstock, $200; City of Lewiston, $500 ; Digby, $700; 
Aberfoye, Ontario, $200; Bangor, $7,000; Summerside, P.E.I. , 
$1,500; B. Beveridge, & Sons, Andover, $100; Bridgetown, 
$206; Liverpool, N.S.$, 700; Truro public meeting, $2,000; 
Palmer & Embury, $50; Brantford, $500; New York, $2,000; 
W. C. B. & G. 11. F. Customs, Ottawa, $2; Philadelphia, 
$2,000; St. Thomas, Ontario, $500; Bowmansville, $300; 
Canada Life Insurance Company, $500; New Haven Chamber 
of Commerce, $823.76; Archibald, New York, $2,000; Capt. 
W. G. Grear, Pictou, $50; Carleton County Council, $1,000; 



FRIENDS IN NEED. 261 

Caledonia Club, San Francisco, |500; E,. J. Uniacke, |36.20; 
Customs House, Ottawa, $150; Kichibucto, $410; G. S. Nut- 
ting, Newton, Mass., $1; Londonderry, N.S., $15; J. Beder, 
New York, $4; Edward Armstrong, New York, $5; Fuller & 
Fuller, Chicago, $50; Peterboro', Ontario, $1,000; William 
Garringe, Chicago, $4.25; I. O. O. F., Memphis, $300; St. 
Catherine's, $500; Methodist Congregation, Woodstock, $30; 
Congregational S. S., Weymouth, $20; Ignatius Sargent, Ma- 
chias. Me., $25; M. E. Church, Lincoln, Me., $5; Congi'ega- 
tional Church, Maiden, Mass., $15.16; Bucksport, Me., $300; 
Paris, $300; Hamilton, Ontario, $10,000; Newcastle and 
Douglastown, $100; Maritime Association, New York, $1,000; 
Municipality of Clark, $400; C. C. Hamilton, Cornwallis, $5; 
Edward Todd & Co., $25; Moncton, $1,100; Brockville, Onta- 
rio, $500; New Glasgow, N.S., $1,000; Rosemond Woollen Co., 
Quebec, $50; Kingston, Ontario, $1,584; Spring Hill Mines, 
N.S., $200; Albert Mines, $115; Westmoreland Coal Co., 
Philadelphia, $100; Glasgow, Scotland, $9,733.40; Pictou, 
$1,000; WeUand, Ontario, $100; S. Jackson, Sheffield, Eng., 
$250; North British and Mercantile Insurance Co., $2,433.35; 
Bridgetown, N.S., $131.19; J. W. Campbell, Chicago, $50; 
St. James Church, Orilla, Ontario, $20; Annapolis, N.S., $54; 
Hev. James McLean, Londonderry, N.S., $2; R. J. Flanagan, 
Newcastle, $5; J. P. Taites, Sussex, $8; Commercial Union 
Assurance Co., $2,500; John McDonald, Toronto, $400; B. F. 
Thurlow, $85; Port Hope, $600; Stock Exchange, New York, 
$772.50; Gloucester, Mass., $100; Board of Trade, Buffalo, 
$332.68; Buffalo public school children, $1,000; Bay Side, St. 
Andrews, $50; Raymond Percy, Yarmouth, $1; Departmental 
Staff, Ottawa, $1,000; Clerks House of Commons, Ottawa, 
$150; Port Hope, Ontario, $300; Council of York County, 



262 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

Ontario, ^3,000; Ayr, Ontario, $200; Detroit, Mich., 1,000 
Eliot National Bank, $647; Citizens' Hose Co., St. Catherine's, 
Ontario, $200; Shediac Comedy Club, $11; Stonington M. E. 
Church, $20; Salem, Mass., $700; New York (per British 
Consul), $3,500; Rev. Canon Carmody, Windsor, $10; Port La 
Tour, $40; Bridgetown, N.S., $58.73; Judge Wilkins, Nova 
Scotia, $80; Dalhousie, $200; Dover, Me., $592.75; Yarmouth, 
N.S., $700; New Bedford, Mass., $200; a friend. Grand 
Eapids, Mich., $1; Windsor, .N.S., $350; Church of England, 
Lime Rock, Conn., $24; Chicago Clearing House, $1,000; 
Guysboro', N.S., $121; Manchester, Eng., $3,660; Liverpool, 
N.S., $819.27; Burt & Henshaw, Boston, $850; Maritime 
Association, New York, $4,400; Lord Mayor of Dublin, $86.67; 
Philadelphia, $2,000; J. H. Sternburg, New York, $25; Grace 
Church, Detroit, Mich., $97.42; Knox Church, Hamilton, $100; 
City of Hamilton (additional), $3,500; Maritime Association, 
of New York, per A. C. Smith, $1,000; Liverpool, N.S., 
$819.27; Capt. Borgan, now at Chatham, $5; Erastus Titus, 
Baltimore, $261.97; Chicago, $10,000; Hon. Judge Keator, 
Ottawa, 111., $50; San Francisco, Cal., $3,000; Officers, non- 
commissioned officers, and men in garrison, Halifax, through 
Gen. O' Grady Haly, $522.21; Alfred McKay, International 
Mines, Cape Breton, $100; Campbellton, Restigouche, per W. 
Mott, $147; Bale Verte, Restigouche, $50; A. Matthew, N.Y., 
$100; Norwich, Ontario, 100; Mongaup Valley, N.Y., per Rev. 
Wm. Ferrie, formerly of St. David's Church, $33.30; Peel 
County, Ontario, $1,000; F. H. Smith & Co., per E. G. Dunn, 
$25; Boston Theatre, per Mayor Prince, $886.03; Priest, Page, 
& Co., " Howe Scale Co.," $250; County of Wentworth, Onta- 
rio, $1,000; Chicago Board of Trade, $274.10; Lieut. Clements, 
Annapolis, $20; Clifton, Ontario, $300; Dominion Organ Co., 



FRIENDS IN NEED. 203 

Bowmansville, $102; Tort La Tour, $8.27; Bank of ISIontreal, 
Newcastle, $100; Peterboro', Ontario, $124; Glasgow, Scotland, 
$-1,880; Grey County Council, Ontario, $500; Garrison at 
Halifax, $42.50; Belfast, Ireland, $524; Bdver John, Pictou 
Co., N.S., $381.50; James L. Bowman, Brownsville, Penn., 
S25; Waterloo, Ontario, Council, $200; St. Andrews, $100; Hi- 
ram Walker & Sons, London, Ontario, $200; Hillsborough, $60; 
Bank B.N. America, San Francisco, $2,600; Attleboro', Mass., 
$15; Arichat, C.B., $367; Philadelphia, $1,500; Clinton, 
Ontario, Masonic service, $53; Rogers Hill, Pictou, $40.36; 
AYindsor, $207.32; a friend, Mount Vernon, lo., $1; Port 
Hope, Ontario, $134.20; Eldon, Ontario, Council, $500; Messrs. 
H. Andrews & Co., of Belfast, Ireland, £5; Messrs. James 
Scott & Co., Cork, Ireland, £10; Messrs. J. Lewenz & Co., 
London, £50 sterling; Messrs. Hiland, Chessman, & Co., Bos- 
ton, $25 gold; through the Mayor of Charlottetown, the results 
of a meeting and subscriptions at Lot 34, St. Peter's Poad, 
$55.50; Miss Logan, Orilla, Ontario, $10; Wentw^orth, N.S., 
Presbyterian Church, $3; Stewiacke, N. S., per F. II. Holes- 
worth, $40; Petrolia, Ontario, per Mayor Kerby, $200. 

THE SUPPLIES. 

Burnhani & Morrill, 10 cases beef; Sackville, supplies; 
Petitcodiac, box goods; Milltown, Saint Stephen, cooked pro- 
visions; Fletcher & Co., Portland, Me., provisions; Wetmore 
Bros., London, 20 barrels oil; E. Herritt, Petitcodiac, provis- 
ions; Toronto Coal Co., 250 tons of coal; Fredericton, two 
cars of cooked provisions; Peter Mitchell, Montreal, one case 
goods; J. T. Lewis & Co., Portland, Me., 1 case clothing; J. 
W. M. Kinnear & Co., Halifax, 5 barrels flour; Halifax, 1,025 
blankets; Scotch bakery, Saint John, 250 loaves bread; Ports- 



264 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

mouth, N.H., box clothing; A. Heney, New York, 100 barrels 
meal; Montreal, 1 train-load provisions; Quebec, supplies; 
Wilson Packing Co., Chicago, 50 cases beef; Halifax, quantity- 
supplies; E. A. Barnard & Son, Calais, 2 barrels hams; Saint 
Stephen and Milltown, 1 case produce; Moncton, quantity 
bread; Upper Canada Furniture Co., 50 bedsteads; Lawrence- 
town, 29 packages supplies; Halifax, 1,500 blankets; Sussex, 
case provisions ; Boston, supplies per cutter " Gallatin; " Hamp- 
ton, lot supplies; Yarmouth, N. S., supplies; Amherst, N. S., 
supplies; Sackville, N. S., provisions; William Cummins & 
Sons, Truro, supplies; P. Mclnnes & Co., 100 blankets; J. F. 
Power & Co., Halifax, 50 barrels flour; Amherst, supplies; per 
"Argus" from lialifax, 16,100 pounds pork, G,552 pounds beef, 
3,100 pounds chocolate, 580 pounds tea; Fredericton Ladies' 
Committee, donation; Mrs. Sheriff Temple, Fredericton, case 
clothing; Deering, Milliken, & Co., Portland, 2 cases blankets; 
North Sydney, load coal; F. O. Leavitt, one tent; G. W. True 
&Co., Portland, 10 barrels flour and meal; Leath & Gore, 16 
boxes soap; Halifax, supplies; Thompson & Bligh, Halifax, 
goods; Burns & Murray, Halifax, goods; S. H. & J. Moss, 2 
cases clothing; Jennings & Co., cases clothing ; B. H. Calkin, 
clothes; Unitarian Parish, Portsmouth, N.H., clothes; Chris- 
tian Temperance Union, Moncton, 3 cases clothing; Bangor, 
supplies; Salem, supplies; Windsor, N.S., supplies; London- 
derry, supplies; Portland, Me., supplies; Adam Darling, Mont- 
real, supplies; M. L. Paul, supplies; Thomas P. Beals, Port- 
land, supplies; Montreal, supplies; Boston, goods; Cowdrey & 
Co., Boston, provisions; Saint Andrews, supplies; J. W. Jones, 
Lawrencetown, N.S., supplies; Connell and Hay, Woodstock, 
200 barrels potatoes; J. & C. Harris, Moncton, supplies; Stock 
Yard, Chicago, provisions; Toronto, supplies; Kentville, N.S., 



FRIENDS IN NEED. 265 

supplies; Upper Clarence, N. S., supplies; James O'Brien & 
Co., clothing; Digby, N. S., clothing; New Haven United 
Workers, clothing; Hillsboro', supplies; Charlottetown, second- 
hand clothing; Fredericton, 5 cases clothing; Halifax, 50 
stoves; Norcross, Miller, & Co., Boston, clothing; Portland, 
Me., clothes; Harvey, Albert Co., supplies; Thurston, Hall, & 
Co., Cambridgeport, Mass., 50 barrels flour and meal; Bridge- 
town, N.S., clothing; Woodstock, supplies; Annapolis, N.S., 
clothing; McLean & Blaikie, Great Village, N.S., supplies; R. 
Adams, Pollet River, N.B., bedding and clothing; Fredericton, 
supplies; Howe Spring Bed Co., New York, 50 bedsteads, 75 
chairs, &c. ; Alberton, P.E.I. , supplies; Yarmouth, N.S., sup- 
plies; Young Men's Christian Association, Boston, supplies; 
Portland, Me., clothing; Montreal, supplies; Wilson Packing 
Co., Chicago, cooked provisions; Quebec, supplies; Montreal, 
supplies ; Shediac, supplies ; Unitarian Society, Dedham, Mass. , 
supplies; Boston, supplies; Portland, Me., supplies; Quincy, 
111., 50 barrels flour; Saint Andrews, clothing; Saratoga, N.Y., 
supplies; Billings & Wetmore, supplies; Waterman Bros., 20 
barrels oil; Pierce & Co., furniture; Montreal, supplies; To- 
ronto, supplies; Upper Canada Furniture Co., Bowmansville, 
Ontario, furniture; Andover, one car provisions; Charlotte- 
town, supplies; Salem, Mass., supplies; Fredericton, supplies; 
Prince Edward Island, supplies; Ottawa Ladies Committee, 
supplies; Toronto, supplies; Harry Piper, supplies; Galbraith, 
Christie, & Co., Toronto, supplies; A. Woodcock, Toronto, sup- 
plies; Christie, Bond, & Co., Toronto, supplies; Portland, Me., 
supplies; Wolfville, N. S., supplies; Montreal, 20 packages 
clothing; W. F. Johns & Co., Gananoque, Ont., supplies; 
Truro, supplies; Salem, Mass., Young Men's Christian Asso- 
ciation, supplies; C. J. Stewart, Amherst, supplies; Thurston 



266 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

& Cameron, supplies; Fredericton, through Sheriff Temple, 3 
cases clothing and bedding; Campbellton, clothing; Kingston, 
Ont., 2 cases clothing; Charlottetown, P.E.I. , per A. A. 
Macdonald, clothing; William Avard, Botsford, Westmoreland 
Co , 1 barrel pork ; Quincy, 111., 50 barrels meal; J. P. Coates, 
clothing; Philadelphia Maritime Exchange, clothing; Montreal, 
1 barrel and 4 cases clothing; Union Stock Yard and Transit 
Co., Chicago, 90 ban-els pork, 75 barrels flour, 25 barrels corn- 
meal, from the business men, banks, and Stock Yard Co. ; 
James Stewart & Co's foundry, Hamilton, Ont., 6 cooking 
stoves and furniture; Halifax, N. S., 4 cases clothing and 2 
barrels beef, 80 mattresses and 300 pillows; Lockport, N.S., 2 
cases clothing and bedding; Port Medway, N. S., 1 case cloth- 
ing; Bayfield, N.S., clothing; Mahone Bay, C.B., lot clothing; 
Stewiacke, N.S., box clothing; J. D. & J. W. Eaton, Salem, 
Mass., box of new blankets; Carter & Co., Elora, Ont., 5 
barrels flour; Montreal Belief Association, 1 bale, 1 case, and 
10 parcels clothing. 

To show liow scattered were the recipients of 
these gifts, as well as to show the confidence the 
public placed in the merchants of Saint John, we 
annex the statement of receipts for distribution 
made by one firm. 

SENT TO MESSRS. DANIEL AND BOYD FOR DISTRIBUTION. 

W. W. Turnbull, Esq., Saint John, $200; G. W. Vamvart, 
Esq., Woodstock, $100; Daniel Hawkesworth, Esq., Digby, 
$20; B. Rosamond, Esq., Ontario, $50; Messrs. Loeb & Co., 
New York, $50; Messrs. James McLaren ScNep., Manchester, 
£100 sterling; Messrs. Marshall & Aston, Manchester, £50 
sterling. 



FRIENDS IN NEED. 267 



SENT TO JOHN BOYD, ESQ., FOR DISTRIBUTION. 

James H. Moran, Esq., Saint John, $100; Hon. Isaac Bur- 
pee, Minister Customs, Saint John, |100; Thomas Furlong, 
Esq., $50; Canada Life Assurance Co., $500; Thomas Nelson 
& Sons, Edinburgh, £50 sterling, through Dr. Rand, for teach- 
ers. Clothing from Saint Andrew's Church, Montreal, by Rev. 
Gavin Long, value $280; George Sloane, Esq., New York, $50 
U.S. currency. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

ADMINISTRATION OF RELIEF. 

The First Distribution. — The Random Applications. — The Danger 
from Impostors. — The First Organization. — Ineffectiveness of 
Original Plan. —The Great Number of Applicants. — How they 
were supplied. — The Introduction of the Chicago System. — The 
New Committee. — The Tents and Barracks. — Independent 
Shanties. — How Assistance could be obtained. 

"TTTHEN the first packages of provisions and 
^ ' clothing came, the persons to whom they 
were forwarded distributed them to the foremost 
comers who seemed in need; and by this random 
method many suffering ones were at first supplied 
with the necessaries of life. But as the call for 
succor became more urgent, and the influx of sup- 
plies more abundant, the necessity for some central 
efficient system became forcibly apparent. So long 
as each consignee of money and supplies distrib- 
uted them as he saw fit, without taking the pains to 
make inquiries in regard to the needs of the appli- 
cants, many persons received vastly more than they 

268 



ADMINISTRATION OF RELIEF. 269 

needed, many were given supplies the'' same day by 
various different donors, and many deserving ones 
who happened to be unacquainted with the place, or 
the person in charge, went without altogether. The 
generous gifts of the sympathizing people were 
unequal^ bestowed, and often given to unworthy 
and dishonest applicants. Yet in the first hours of 
the public distress it was impossible to adopt any 
general plan of distribution which would answer the 
purpose. But when the first and most pressing 
calls had been supplied by individuals, a meeting of 
the citizens was held, and a committee appointed to 
take charge of the whole matter of receiving and 
distributfhg the gifts from abroad. The executive 
committee of that body consisted of the following 
gentlemen : A. C. Smith, chairman ; W. H. Tuck, 
C. N. Skinner, E. McLeod, Harris Allen, J. A. 
Harding, Harry Leonard, F. A. King, J. H. Parks. 
L. R. Harrison was afterwards appointed secretary. 

The committee for the receipt and distribution of 
supplies : John Magee, A. C. Watson, ^. Furlong, 
W. H. Frith, Rev. J. Hartt, Rev. Dr. Maclise, Rev. 
Mr. Macrae. 

The finance committee : C. H. Fair weather, 
George S. DeForest, W. H. Tuck. 

The labors of this committee were exceedingly 
arduous. They were overrun with applications for 



270 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

help, and nearly overwhelmed by a hungry crowd 
of needy men, women, and children. They did the 
best they could, and, with a fortitude and patience 
wonderful to behold, worked and talked from the 
early hours of the morning until late at night, visit- 
ing those who could not come, and cooking at the 
rink for those who had no facilities of their own for 
preparing foo«l : yet irregularities and impostors crept 
in. The great skating-rink which they selected as 
their headquarters became the focus for all the 
thousands who needed hats, coats, shoes, flour, 
bacon, salt, sugar, coffee, or meat ; and with that 
vast army joined all the indigent population of the 
outlying districts, who with lies on their lips, and 
huge baskets on their arms, begged in piteous terms 
for a morsel (?) of bread for their horridly burned 
and starving (?) families. 

The methods and amount of work done appear 
by the following paragraph from a daily paper : — 

" From seven o'clock until eleven o'clock the rink 
was thronged with applicants for food, armed with 
tickets from the committee or prominent citizens. 
A careful estimate of the family and single tickets 
shows that from seventeen thousand to twenty thou- 
sand persons were supplied with substantial food. 
In addition to this, about three hundred were fed in 
the rink, receiving three substantial meals. Tea and 



ADMINISTRATION OF RELIEF. 271 

coffee are given out at every meal, and meat twice a 
day. 

" Each holder of a ticket for food is admitted 
through the main entrance, and is at once directed to 
the circular counter in the middle of the rink. One 
of the clerks in waiting receives the ticket, and issues 
supplies in proportion to the number of mouths to be 
fed." 

The arrival of the Rev. C. G. Truesdale of Chicago, 
who was chairman of the Chicago Relief Committee, 
and who was sent out by that city to assist the people 
of Saint John and to advise the merchants of his own 
city as to the kind of contributions most needed, 
changed the whole proceedings, and brought the work 
into a still more systematic form. Under his superin- 
tendence, the Relief Association was re-organized, 
and the following committees appointed : — 

BOARD OF DIEECTOES. 

Mayor S. Z. Earle, president; W. H. Tuck^ 
Recorder, vice-president ; James A. Harding (high 
sheriff), Attorney-Gen. King, James Reynolds, Wil- 
liam Magee, A. Chipman Smith, C. N. Skinner, Har- 
ris Allan, John H. Parks, E. McLeod, F. A. King, 
H. J. Leonard, Gen. Warner, Andre Gushing, Alder- 
men Maher, Peters, Ferguson, Kerr, Adams, Duffell, 
Brittain, Glasgow, and Wilson, E. Fisher, James I. 



272 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

Fellows ; C. H. Fairweather, treasurer ; L. H. Harri- 
son, secretary. 

Executive Committee. — W. H. Tuck, Chairman; 
James A. Harding, George E. King, Andre Gushing, 
Gen. Warner, M. W. Maher, James Reynolds ; L. R. 
Harrison, secretary. 

SUB-COMMITTEES . 

Shelter Committee. — M. W. Maher, F.- A. King, 
John H. Parks. 

Furchasi7ig Supplies. — C. H. Fairweather, C. A. 
Everett, A. C. Smith. 

Transportation. — Harris Allan. 

Insurance. — John H. Parks, Harris Allan. 

Sich^ including Hospital and Interment. — William 
Bayard, M.D., C. N. Skinner, R. N. Knight. 

Employment. — Harris Allan, E. McLeod, Henry 
Duffell. 

Charitable Institutions. — T. W. Daniel, Andre 
Gushing, Boyle Travis, M.D. 

Correspondence and Telegrams. — W. H. Tuck, L. 
R. Harrison. 

Special Relief. — George E. King, James A. Hard- 
ing, James Reynolds, William Peters, B. Lester 
Peters, George F. Harding, C. N. Skinner, Edwin 
Fisher, Robert Marshall, A. C. Smith, E. McLeod. 

Reception and Storage, — William Magee, James 
Reynolds. 



ADMINISTRATION OF RELIEF. 273 

Audit. — Andre Gushing, George S. DeForest, A. 
Glasgow. 

Printing. — Gen. Warner, John Kerr, E. McLeod. 

A local paper published July 2 thus comments 
upon the new regime : — 

"The new system of relief at the rink was entered 
upon yesterday, and, although at first working 
somewhat tardy, promises to be a great improve- 
ment on the former plan. 

" The order on the commissariat is as follows : — 

PROVISION ORDER. 

Deliver to (name of applicant) . 

(present residence) 

Signed 

Ko. 

Date 

"The following, copied from one of the tickets 
filled out yesterday, is a fair sample of what the 
committee consider good rations: One man, one 
woman, and four children, received as rations for 
fifteen days : 40 pounds flour, 20 pounds meat, 80 
pounds potatoes, 5 pounds cheese, 11 pounds tea, 
5 pounds sugar, 1 dozen fish, and 1 pound soap. 

" On Tuesday the demand for out-door relief 
exhausted 18 barrels of flour, 14 barrels of crackers, 



274 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN, 

12 barrels of oatmeal, 13 boxes of cheese, 12 boxes 
of coffee, 12 boxes of soap, 4 chests of tea, 1 barrel 
of sugar, 24 barrels of potatoes, 6 barrels of beef, 
besides quantities of pork and other articles. A 
larger amount was given out yesterday, — enough to 
supply 1,500 for many days. 

'' The clothing department, under charge of Mr. A. 
C. Kerrison, is located on the floor of the rink, and, 
with the furniture department on the opposite side, 
separates the commissariat counters from the front 
half of the arena, in which are stationed the exam- 
ining clerks and other officers. 

t' This department is enclosed by high board walls, 
on the inside of which are ranges of shelves, while 
.down the centre of the enclosure is a double shelved 
counter. Every thing is in perfect order, and the 
goods are as carefully classified as in a first-class dry- 
goods store. Mr. Kerrison showed our reporter a 
lot of children's toys and picture-books, many of 
them the contributions of little folk in Canada and 
the United States, to the homeless and houseless 
children of Saint John. 

" The furniture department is enclosed in the same 
manner as the one above described, and has similar 
interior fittings. The following is a copy of about 
the last order filled j^esterday afternoon: one bed- 
stead, four chairs, one mattress with pillows, a cook- 



ADMINISTRATION OF RELIEF. 275 

stove and fittings, blankets and quilts for three beds, 
crockery and cutlery for a family, and one table." 

Although the number of applicants for food 
during the first twenty-four hours after the organ- 
ization of the first Relief Committee is said to have 
exceeded ten thousand, yet the system of visitation 
which was soon adopted, and the exodus of the 
people, soon reduced the number to less than three 
thousand. 

The most perplexing question which the com- 
mittee had to deal with was in connection with the 
applications for shelter. It was no small problem to 
ascertain how so many houseless ones should be pro- 
tected from sun and storm until they could in some 
way provide for themselves. This matter was par- 
tially settled by pitching a camp of government mil- 
itary tents on the parade-ground at the extreme end 
of the peninsula, and crowding them with people. 
Others were provided with passage into the coun- 
try or out of the Provinces ; and in several other 
ways a temporary covering or home was provided for 
all. At a later period, barracks were constructed on 
Queen's Square for the better accommodation of 
such as were more permanently destitute of homes. 

A large number of people were too proud to ask for 
food or shelter, and suffered much before they were 
discovered; and some of the shelterless ones con- 



276 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

structed on vacant lots temporary shanties of dimin- 
utive size, and occupied them until better quarters 
were to be had. Some of those buildings were most 
laughable combinations, and exhibited a conglom- 
eration of material most wonderful to behold. 

The following notice was published for the instruc- 
tion of such persons as desired to obtain relief, and 
shows the methods adopted by the committee : — 

" First, The receiving of applications. Parties can 
apply by mail or through friends, or by a personal 
interview at the office. This, of course, is only pre- 
liminary ; and it is no matter how it is done, so that 
it is prompt and definite as to the name of the appli- 
cant and address. 

" All letters from applicants or their friends should 
be taken as the basis of an application, and either 
sent out by visitors, or acted upon sooner, if the 
amount and quality of the information is deemed 
conclusive. 

"Second, The preparation and recording and 
assorting of the applications, preparatory to sending 
them out by visitors. 

" Third, Returning said applications as soon as 
possible to the office, with full report on each case, 
— comprehensive and reliable as to all particulars 
necessary to be known. 

" Fourth, Checking them off, and delivering them 



ADMINISTRATION OF RELIEF. 277 

to the board of directors or general superintendent, 
to be passed upon as soon as possible, in order to be 
ready to issue on them (if approved) as soon as the 
applicant calls, which they will be cautioned not to 
do under a day or two ; and the visitor will give each 
applicant, at the time of visitation, a card with the 
number of the application, to be presented at the 
office so that their papers can readily be found. 

" Fifth, Prompt issue of orders for whatever is 
approved ; the goods to be delivered on presentation 
of tickets to the respective departments. 

" Sixth, Careful numbering and filing of all appli- 
cations on appropriate indexes, and in packages of 
100 in pigeon-holes ; and the return of all tickets, on 
which goods have been issued, to the head book- 
keeper every night. 

" Seventh, Complete indexes of all applications, in 
order that they may be instantly referred to on a 
second call by applicants, and so be able to check or 
prevent frauds and duplications in the books. 

" Eighth, Three weekly or daily reports from all 
departments to the general superintendent." 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

EEBUILDING THE CITY. 

Character of the People. — Peaceableness of the Inhabitants. — Be- 
ginning to clear away the Debris. — Temporary Dwellings. — 
Temporary Storehouses. — General Clearing of the Burned Dis- 
trict. — Measures for securing Money. — Speech of Mr. John 
Boyd. 

nnHE people of Saint John did not long despair. 
-^ They were a remarkably hopeful and coura- 
geous, peaceable people. As we look back upon the 
fearful devastation, and contemplate the vast num- 
ber of persons turned out under such excitement, 
and in the absence of almost all lawful restraint, we 
do not cease to wonder at the law-abiding manner 
in which they universally conducted themselves. 
Their police force, though efficient, was very small, 
and would have been wholly inadequate for such a 
time as that when the fire was raging, had it existed 
in such small numbers in any other coast city. It is 
true, the artillery and a detachment of the Sixty- 
second Regiment of militia, and a small body from 

278 



REBUILDING THE CITY. 279 

the Ninety-seventh regulars, stationed at Halifax, 
were ordered into the city, where for several days 
they encamped ; yet, as far as the writer's observa- 
tion went, they were of little actual service. They 
were handsome bodies of mihtary men, and ably 
commanded beyond question ; but the overwrought 
anxiety of a stricken people, and the unnatural fears 
which resulted from such a fright, were the only 
excuse for their presence. The city was wonder- 
fully free from thieves, incendiaries, and mobs, in 
view of the opportunities and provocations. 

It is a pleasure to record such a fact, and to let it 
go down to posterity to the credit of the people of 
Saint John. But another feature of their character, 
which secures respect, was seen in the courageous 
and enterprising measures for rebuilding the city, 
taken by them while the foundations were still hot. 
In order to provide a temporary home for their fami- 
lies, they began as early as the ijiorning of the second 
day after the fire, to construct rude board structures, 
containing one or two rooms, in which they could 
sleep and eat until the cellars of their houses were 
cleared, and a new home constructed. Merchants 
ordered plans for new stores to be drawn before the 
smoke ceased to rise from the debris^ and set work- 
men with teams upon the task of clearing the 
rubbish and laying the foundations. Meanwhile, 



280 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

to furnish accommodations for the stores of such as 
could find no rooms, the city granted them the use 
of King's Square, which was soon covered with 
temporary buildings, and made the centre of a most 
thriving trade in all classes of merchandise. Every- 
where was the work of clearing prosecuted ; and so 
sopn were the streets cleared, the toppling walls torn 
down, and the reconstruction begun, that the visitor, 
four weeks after the fire, could obtain no idea of the 
ruins as they were when the fire left them. 

Measures were promptly adopted to obtain assist- 
ance from the government, and loans from English 
capitalists ; and the wheels of enterprise thus set in 
motion moved on with surprising speed. Public 
meetings were held to consult upon the best plan to 
raise money and rebuild ; and the spirit of the popu- 
lace was well represented in a speech made at one 
of these by Mr. John Boyd, a citizen of Saint John, 
whose portrait we present in our frontispiece. Suf- 
fice it to say here, that at the close of Mr. Boyd's 
speech, a committee, consisting of the following sub- 
stantial citizens, was appointed and unanimously 
confirmed, to carry out the measures proposed by 
him : — 

John Boyd, James Hegan, Robert Ferguson, W. 
M. Sears, A. L. Palmer, Andre Gushing, J. C. Fer- 
guson, William DufPell, W. H. Tuck, Z. Ring, Alex- 



REBUILDING TEE CITY. 281 

ander Lockliart, J. L. Dunn, Alexander Jardine, J. 
H. Moran, John McMillan, George F. Smith, Wil- 
liam Magee, Henry Vaughn, J. S. Boies De Veber, J. 
P. C. Burpee, E. J. Brass, James Harris, S. Z. Earle 
(maj'or), Joseph W. Lawrence, D. J. McLaugh- 
lin, W. H. Thorne, George McKean, Robert Cruik- 
shank, Hugh Gregory, Alexander Gibson, Henry 
Hilj^ard, C. A. Everett, John Hegan, Stephen Hall, 
John H. Parks, W. C. Watson, D. V. Roberts, Wil- 
liam Lindsay, T. R. Jones, J. V. Ellis, E. Willis, 
William Elder, James A. Harding (high sheriff), T. 
B. Barker, C. H. Fair weather, W. W. Turnbull, 
Richard Thompson, Jeremiah Harrison, Thomas 
Furlong, John Yeats, J. D. Lewin, Thomas Gilbert, 
George G. Gilbert, J. Y. Troop, A. C. Smith, John 
W. Nicholson, Simeon Jones, Charles W. Weldon, J. 
K. Dunlop, R. T. Clinch, Oliver T. Stone, G. Sidney 
Smith, L. J. Almon, James Domville, and D. D. 
Robertson, with power to add to their number. 

Mr. Boyd said he was there, as Chief Justice 
Ritchie had remarked, only as a listener and learner ; 
but the presence of Judge Ritchie reminded him of 
an association in this city, of which the learned judge 
was a trustee, which had done its work well, of which 
there were twelve trustees personally responsible to 
the lenders. Of this association he had been a trus- 
tee. It borrowed at five per cent, and loaned at six 



282 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

per cent; had in its hands at one time 1650,000; 
executed the trust liberally ; and, when it gave up 
its operations into the hands of the Dominion Gov- 
ernment, had profits of $42,000, which the trustees 
voted to the City Hospital; and thus ended the 
labors of an association which did great good in its 
day, and, in the grant to the City Hospital, has left 
a memorial of the economy, wisdom, and judgment 
of the trustees of the Saint John Savings Bank. 
The principle is the same in the association proposed 
by Mr. Domville, — to borrow on the lowest terms, 
and lend as cheaply as can be, retaining enough for 
ordinary expenses, risks of loans, and the payment 
of interest on the bonds. It would be impossible to 
get the government, as such, to make advances in 
this way. In extraordinary cases, governments 
might do extraordinary things ; and it would not be 
going beyond their legitimate duty to guarantee the 
bonds of such an association as this, they seeing that 
proper trustees were appointed to work with the 
company, and to supervise the loans. The City Cor- 
poration acting with the local government in giving 
their indorsation of the bonds of this association, 
would settle the matter beyond all doubt ; and he 
had the authority of a leading financier present, 
one of the keenest and ablest in the Dominion, that, 
in his opinion, the money could be had in this way 



REBUILDING THE CITY. 283 

at six per cent; and we cannot get it lower, and 
should be thankful to obtain it at this rate. These 
loan associations are no new thing : they have been 
in existence in Canada for many years, and a large 
part of Upper Canada has been built by the moneys 
procured through them. We cannot get money 
unless we have proper security to offer. These 
securities must be looked into and held by some one. 
These holders and managers must be paid, and no 
will work long or well unless he be paid; and the 
question is, Why cannot Saint John pay these invest- 
ments, as well as Montreal, Toronto, Hamilton, and 
London? and why should Saint John, as some among 
us do, object to the receiving of these moneys, when 
no city on this continent has received more benefit 
than Samt John in proportion to the amounts so 
received? Objection is made by some to foreign 
capital being received here, as it was five and twenty 
years ago ; but look at our lines of railways cen- 
tring in this city, constructed by this money from 
abroad ; and in the growth of our trade by means of 
these, have we not all benefited immensely beyond 
the six per cent which it has cost us yearly ? The 
principle is the same which we apply to the most 
ordinary busmess operations. A shipyard is lying 
empty, — no money, and consequently no work. A 
Liverpool merchant says to Mr. Fraser, or Mr. Stew- 



284 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

art, or Mr. Dunlop, " Here is .£12,000 which I wish 
to invest in a ship. I'll advance you X 4,000 to go 
on, and so on as you proceed, and charge you six per 
cent interest on the operation." At once the lum- 
berman cuts down the trees, the millman saws them, 
the railways or the carters deposit them in his yard, 
the shipwright drives the bolts, the blacksmith the 
fastenings ; the painter, the calker, the rigger — all 
are employed. That deserted shipyard becomes a 
scene of life and activity ; and forth there goes the 
result of our united energies, to carry our name over 
every sea, and to bring back their wealth to us. 
And why all this ? Because of this foreign capital 
idle before, busy now, stimulating every industry, 
and building up our city ; while the lender receives 
good interest for his capital, and the borrower is able 
to pay it, and at the same time make a profit of 
$6,000 or $8,000 on his operation. Just as the ship- 
yard without capital would have been silent, so will 
our city be ; but take hold of this plan, and organize 
it properly with the right men, and these tall and 
blackened chimneys, and these falling walls, and sad- 
looking, poverty-stricken shanties, which now stare 
at us like ghastly spectres, where only three weeks 
ago stately warehouses, banks, churches, school- 
houses, and princely mansions were, will soon be 
taken away, and once more will the happy homes 



REBUILDING THE CITY. 285 

be seen, and the stately warehouses erected; and 
Saint John, of which we were all proud, — perhaps 
too proud, — will rear its head, and show to the 
world that its people are worthy of all that sympa- 
thy and aid which have been so lavishly poured into 
it ; that they are worthy of help who help them- 
selves, as we must do in this hour of stern necessity. 
These loan associations are easily worked. There is 
no mystery about them, and there should be none. 
Every practical banker understands their operations : 
they charge according to the nature of the security 
offered; and the security Saint John can offer is 
second to none. We have great reason to thank Mr. 
Domville for his action in this matter. He has gone 
abroad, and brought back intelligence most gratify- 
ing, — that the money can be had, and at a reason- 
able rate. It only rests with us to organize the 
machinery by which this useful information can be 
made practically available. Let earnest men meet, 
men of all shades of opinion, and do what is neces- 
sary, and we shall succeed. Let the same energy 
which built up this city in the past be displayed 
now ; let the same holy brotherhood, which seems to 
have merged us all into one family since that terrible 
20th of June last, continue us banded together to 
repair all our losses ; and there will be no cause for 
repining ; our disasters will all be repaired ; and in a 



286 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

quarter of a century our beautiful city shall be all 
that its friends will desire ; and no city on this ' con- 
tinent will be better able to meet its obligations. 
Our noble river pouring its treasures into the city, 
our railways bringing in products from every point, 
cannot be turned aside from its course ; and there- 
fore why should there be one despondent heart 
among us? For the practical testing of this ques- 
tion, I beg to move that a committee be appointed 
to deal with this matter, and take such action as 
may be considered necessary under the circum- 
stances. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

CHURCHES AND SERMONS. 

The Sad Worshippers. — The Meetings for Consultation. — Sad as 
Funerals. — The Sermon of the Eev. D. M. Maclise, D.D. : " Shall 
there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it?" — Sermon 
of the Rev. John Wills: " Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, 
and the people not be afraid? " — Sermon of the Rev. G. M. Arm- 
strong: "I know, OLord, that thy judgments are right." 

"\TTE made a sincere and earnest effort to obtain 
for publication, from the pastors of the 
churches, extracts from their sermons delivered on 
the sabbath succeeding the fire. We hoped thereby 
to find the free expressions of the people's feelings, 
and preserve them for future study. But the con- 
fusion incident to so great a disturbance, combined 
with the sad fact that there were but few rooms left 
in the city wherein they could congregate, caused 
such as there were of the church services to be very 
limited in number and duration. The assemblies of 
the members, whenever an opportunity offered itself 
for the purpose of discussing their future prospects, 

287 



288 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

were sadder than many funerals. Every eartM}^ 
thing connected with the sacred memories and the 
hallowed associations that had so long held them 
together was swept away forever. In such a time 
and in such a situation the words of the preacher 
have a peculiar interest to the public ; and in order 
that future students of the history of this event may 
know something of the religious life of the inhabit- 
ants, and better understand the excellent qualities 
of that God-fearing populace, we add the extracts 
given below, and regret that the circumstances pre- 
vented the delivery and the publication of the ser- 
mons of other distinguished preachers. 

The Rev. David M. Maclise, D.D., selected his text 
from Amos iii. 6, the first sabbath after the fire, and 
spoke as follows : — 

" Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath 
not done it ? " (Amos iii. 6.) The word evil is one 
of very wide application. In a general sense it com- 
prises all that is opposite to good, whether natural or 
moral. Pain, sickness, poverty, misfortune, loss of 
any kind, are natural evils ; sin in general, crime of 
any kind, vices of every kind, are moral evils. Any 
thing that causes displeasure, pain, sorrow, suffering, 
or calamity, is a natural evil ; while all that produces 
or is either the primary or immediate cause of nat- 
ural evil is often, if not always, a moral evil or sin 
so far as man is concerned. 



CHURCHES AND SERMONS. 289 

When we remember that God is holy, and that 
" in him is no darkness at all," that " he is of purer 
eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on ini- 
quity," we shall distinctly understand ^that the evil 
spoken of in the text is not moral evil, is not sin^ but 
the suffering of evil,_or calamit}^ *' Shall there be 
calamity in a city, and the Lord hath not done it, 
hath not inflicted it ? " This seems the proper 
meaning of the inquiry ; and it does not in any way 
or the slightest degree attribute to God the commis- 
sion or production of sin, which from his nature 
and its nature it is impossible he should do ; but the 
infliction of that penal or corrective evil which 
God may lay on an individual, a city, or a nation, 
for the purpose, on the one hand, of punishing them 
for sin, or, on the other, of correcting them, and 
thereby bringing them back to God himself. But 
from this it does not necessarily follow that the most 
guilty are most severely afflicted ; nay, the very 
opposite may be and often is the case. 

With this understanding of our text, we may 
observe that the world is composed of good and evil : 
of good, as it came first, fresh, fair, and pure, from 
its Maker's hand, as he looked on its loveliness with 
delight, and pronounced it " very good ; " and of 
evil, which entered it when it lapsed into sin. 

As long as man maintained his allegiance to his 



290 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

Creator and law-giver in its integrity, so long good 
alone remained unmingled in the world. But the 
moment the falsehood of Satan was believed, and 
preferred to the truth of God, evil entered into the 
world, commingled itself with the good, obtruded 
itself into the place of the good, and made the " very 
good " to be turned into evil ; and consequently ever 
since, while we have in the world much that is real 
good, and much that is imaginary good, we have 
both commingled with much that is evil ; and it 
becomes a problem of no easy solution, to tell which 
most generally predominates. And although we are 
generally ready to conclude that good prevails, and 
although in the end evil shall be exterminated, and 
good alone shall exist in the new or renewed earth, 
and unmingled righteousness shall alone rule, yet 
still there are times and seasons in the history of 
our suffering race, when we might find it one of the 
most difficult of tasks to persuade the sufferers that 
the evil of calamity is not greater than the good. 
There is a mistake into which we are all ready to 
fall, into which many have fallen ; and that is, when 
we enjoy prosperity which we call good, we attrib- 
ute it all to ourselves, to our own procuring. The 
possession of abundance is ever calculated to close 
the eye against the recognition of the Hand which 
ever open supplies abundance, and to lead us to 



CHURCHES AND SERMONS. 291 

place it all to the credit of our own prudence or 
business ability, or that of our ancestors who pro- 
cured and bequeathed it to us ; and in its enjoy- 
ment we are prone to ignore God, who gives it and 
all good gifts. 

We see this characteristic of human nature admir- 
ably set forth in the case of the king of Babylon. 
When he stood on the top of his splendid palace, and 
looked around on the fair, far-reaching, and populous 
city, he said, in the pride of Jiis heart, " Is not this 
great Babylon that I have built for the house of the 
kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the 
honor of my majesty ? " Had he been about to engage 
in deadly conflict with his foes, he would doubtless 
have invoked the aid of his false gods, or perchance, 
in imminent peril, have been impelled to acknowledge 
the God of heaven, as the kings of Babylon sometimes 
did ; but now when surrounded with affluence, peace, 
and prosperity, by the splendor of the city he had 
done so much to elevate to its present grand position, 
he looked upon it, and recognized not God from 
whom the power came, and at the tenure of whose 
will he held it, but saw himself as the originator 
and director of all: " Is not this great Babylon that / 
have built for the house of the kingdom, by the might 
of my power, and for the honor of my majesty ? " 

Trace human nature down through all the grades, 



292 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

from the loftiest to the lowliest position, from the 
mighty monarch of Babylon down to the paeanest 
digger in the mud, and you will find that whenever 
and wherever employment is plenty and remuneration 
ample, there is an inclination to forget God, and 
claim the credit of all to self. On the other hand, 
when evil comes upon us, when loss is experienced, 
or calamity of any kind crushes us, we at once look 
beyond self, and search for some cause to which we 
may assign the evil we endure. These causes are 
numerous and various. Some attribute all the ills 
they bear to chance. Many never go beyond a mere 
calculation of chances to account for all the afflictions 
of their lives : they look upon the world as a chapter 
of accidents ; they consider the rise and power of na- 
tions, the wealth of a community or an individual, as 
merely their good fortune, while their poverty, their 
reverses, their ills of all kinds, are their ill fortune, 
and all alike the result of mere blind chance. Again, 
others more philosophical, more reasonable, because 
more considerate, who have discovered that chance is 
nothing, that there is no such thing as chance, that 
what so many call chance is merely " direction that 
we cannot see," search for some more satisfactory 
cause, and think they find it in what they denominate 
the general laws of nature. Or perhaps, if more 
piously than philosophically inclined, they will at- 



CHURCHES AND SERMONS. 293 

tribute all the causes that produce the changes to 
nature s God^ but stop short at those general laws 
which, as they suppose, form and control the move- 
ments of Providence ; but the particular actings, and 
the combination of circumstances which regulate the 
operations of these general laws, they take entirely 
out of the hands of God, and look only to this sec- 
ondary and subordinate instrumentality by which, 
according to their ideas, the general laws impressed 
on the universe are found to operate, as they imagine, 
without any further care or control. The conse- 
quence is, that good is enjoyed, and self is honored; 
or, if perchance nature or the God of nature be 
acknowledged, the secondary cause will yet be their 
own skill, &c., that leaves God out of the account, 
and sets up humanity. On the other hand, if evil be 
endured, it will be assigned to any other cause than 
God ; and it is not till man is renewed in the spirit of 
his mind, that he is renewed in the power of faith, 
and is led to accept the truth, that, "if there be evil 
in a city, the Lord hath done it." 

If an evil, a calamity, is endured in the nation, 
in the city, in the family, in the individual; if it is 
found in the marts of commerce where the rich prod- 
ucts of the earth are continually exposed for sale 
and profit, or in the dark and dreary lanes into which 
misery and want and woe retire to hide themselves 



294 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

from the light of day, in those wretched cellars or 
garrets, the last resort of friendless poverty, where the 
inmates are exposed to the fetid odors and deadly 
damps and malarious exhalations, or to the winds 
and the rains, and the snows and frosts of winter ; 
whether it be in the palace of splendor, or the hovel 
of penury, — it is the Lord hath done it. If it he a 
calamity that comes to the treasury of a nation, and 
shuts up the fountains from which it was supplied ; or 
that comes to the health of a nation, and lays its 
thousands or tens of thousands on beds of pain and 
death ; or a calamity that has sent famine into the 
land, or one that has reduced to dust and ashes the 
hamlet, town, or city, — it is the Lord hath clone it. 

There are many phases of evil in the land at the 
present, which, did time permit their consideration, 
would all tend to illustrate the great truth indicated 
in our text; such as the commercial distress through 
which for nearly four years we have been passing, 
the general and protracted want of employment, its 
causes and consequences : but it does not. We would 
see in these and all other forms of calamity, that, while 
men usually limit them to second causes, the real and 
original cause of all is sin, — the sin of the people, 
and the righteous judgment of God on the people on 
account of it, to correct them for it, and reform them 
from it ; but that men will attribute it to any other 
cause than this. 



CHURCHES AND SERMONS. 295 

To come nearer home, and get away from general 
principles and considerations under the broad aigis 
of which we might feel inclined to shield ourselves 
from social or individual blame or responsibility, let 
us turn our attention more particularly to the terrible 
calamity which with one fell stroke has destroyed 
more than half of all the buildings in this city, and 
probably four-fifths of the value of the whole, and 
also much precious life ; a calamity which has ren- 
dered homeless from fifteen to twenty thousand peo- 
ple; reducing multitudes of them from opulence or 
competence to poverty and starvation. Perhaps no 
such calamity, so extensive, so absolute, so complete, 
so utterly ruinous in proportion to the size of the 
place, and means of the people, has ever been expe- 
rienced on this continent. Absolutely considered, 
indeed, far greater conflagrations have taken place ; 
as for instance, Chicago. In that city a space one mile 
broad and two miles long was burnt, rendering home- 
less from one hundred and fifty thousand to two hun- 
dred thousand people ; about ten times the extent of 
this conflagration, great as it is, with an equivalent 
of value in similar proportion. And in Boston 
twice as many women and sewing-girls were rendered 
homeless and out of employment by the great fire 
there, as there are here of all classes burnt out. There 
were about thirty thousand of that one class, prob- 



296 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

ably not much more than fifteen thousand in all here. 
And yet, for the size and means of this city, fifteen 
thousand homeless ones is a startling and appalling 
fact to contemplate. 

In returning from Halifax on Wednesday night 
last, I heard at Truro the startling tidings, " Half of 
Saint John is burnt ; all the business part of the city 
is gone. It commenced at York Point, passed up 
Dock Street, burning all the way down to the docks, 
and many vessels in the harbor. King Street, Prince 
William Street, Water Street, Germain Street, past 
Saint Andrew's Church and the Victoria Hotel ; and 
it is still raging, passing on to Lower Cove." That 
was sufficiently alarming ; it was startling and stupe- 
fying ; but it did not convey to my mind half of the 
terrible reality. There were many Saint John men 
on the train, and the excitement was intense ; while 
at each station the telegrams not only confirmed the 
truth of the awful tidings flashed on the lightning's 
wings along the wires, but gave new and still more 
terrible accounts of the conflagration. It was passing 
eastward toward Courtenay Bay. Now it had reached 
Charlotte Street, Sydney Street, then Carmarthen 
Street, and was passing up Leinster Street, thence 
northward in the very teeth of the furious gale that 
was sweeping the fire before it with irresistible fury, 
to King Street, east. More than one hundred miles 



CHURCHES AND SERMONS. 297 

distant we saw the heavens lighted up with the lurid 
glare of the great burning going on in the homes of 
tens of thousands of our fellow-citizens; and oh, 
how hel]3less we felt, as we gazed with beating hearts 
and bated breath on the surging symbol ! Oh, how 
we longed for power in a moment to transport our- 
selves to the place where our friends were in agony- 
looking on -their consuming houses, and all of earth 
they possessed, perhaps themselves perishing in the 
flames amid tiieir burning homes, in the vain endeavor 
to save something from the general ruin ! 

But we had no such power ; and, even if we had, it 
would have been of no avail, for, had we been here, 
we would have been as helpless as all the rest. The 
train rushed on with its usual speed ; but it seemed 
to us that express-train never before moved so slowly, 
nor stopped so often or so long. At Moncton, where 
we stopped the apparently interminable time of an 
hour, waiting for the northern train, a railroad em- 
ployee told me that both the Congregational and 
Calvin churches were consumed; that he had read 
the telegram which said so a few minutes ago. It 
seemed as if that information must be true. The 
man was intelligent, and said he could not be and 
was not mistaken; and yet I did not, could not, 
would not, believe it. It was apparently true, and 
caused a strange, startling sensation to thrill through 



298 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

my whole being as I heard it; but yet I held it as an 
idle tale. I reasoned rapidly thus : " The wind is 
noi-th-west ; starting from York Point, it has passed 
up Dock Street to King Street, and onward south 
towards the bay. According to all other telegrams, 
part of the north side of King Street below King 
Square still stood : that could not be, and those 
churches gone ; for with such a wind in such a direc- 
tion, were those churches gone, all south of them to 
King Street, and including it, must be gone too." 
And yet it was not till I saw the tower now over our 
heads, that I was fully persuaded that my reasoning, 
and not the telegram, was correct. When I saw it, 
and saw the black cloud rising from and resting over 
the ruined city, and thought of the unimaginable 
woes that lay beneath it, my heart was too full for 
utterance ; and the friends who gathered round me 
at the depot, all telling me of the destruction that I 
knew only too well already, may have thought me 
heartless and unfeeling as I silently listened to the 
excited and exciting utterances. Appearances often 
deceive, and "things are not what they seem." It 
was because just then speech was impossible. I could 
not bear the strain, and maintain my manhood's forti- 
tude ; and therefore abruptly turned away to hide the 
tears that would well up, although " not much given 
to the melting mood." Hastening home with mingled 



CHURCHES AND SERMONS. 299 

feelings, — feelings of devout gratitude that this my 
church and home were spared amid the general over- 
throw of twelve or thirteen other churches and pas- 
tors' homes, feelings of profound grief for the fearful 
losses and sufferings of so many of my own people, 
and other people residing in the burnt district, — I 
could not wait a moment to rest after a night of sleep- 
less excitement, till I went over the ruins of the city 
but yesterday morning so fair, and apparently so safe. 

As I walked alone amid thousands among the 
ruins, and looked on the wide-spread total destruc- 
tion of the greater part of all the homes and all the 
business houses of the city, so lately full of life and 
hope and happiness, I felt as I had never felt before, 
and hope never to feel again. It was soul-sickening 
beyond conception, and still more beyond descrip- 
tion ; and therefore I shall not attempt to describe it. 
Nor do I need to make the attempt to you, who have 
doubtless, most of you, felt the same ; and even those 
views and feelings and sickening sensations utterly 
fail to realize the magnitude and the far-reaching 
consequences of the stupendous calamity. 

A few months ago this community was startled 
when four or five business-houses with their contents 
were consumed, and five men perished in them, 
bringing sorrow and bereavement to as many homes ; 
and no wonder, for it was a great disaster, How 



300 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

much greater tlie present calamity is, no living man 
can yet tell ; greater in the loss of property a thou- 
sand-fold perhaps. How many lives are lost, is not 
yet knovi^n. It is not surprising that the boldest 
stand aghast at the overwhelming catastrophe. The 
whole scene, men say, is very blue. It is worse, 
much worse than blue: it is black; black beyond 
description or imagination, both metaphorically and 
literally. And yet it is not wholly black. There 
are some bright spots and some rifts in the black 
thunder-cloud ; there is not only a silver lining to 
the cloud, but a golden glory lights up its heaven- 
ward side. The news, flashed across not only the 
continent, but around Christendom, of this calamity, 
has excited an amazing sympathy among the nations, 
which is bringing to our aid a vast amount of relief 
in provisions and other necessaries, including large 
sums of money, which will doubtless afford at least 
temporary means of support to the most necessitous ; 
so that none need perish from hunger, or otherwise. 

It is truly cheering to see. how much there is of 
genuine goodness in the human heart, in spite of sin ; 
to see how the tale of sorrow and suffering can stir 
up, and has stirred up, the beneficent sympathies of 
the souls of men and women, not only in the whole 
Dominion, but in the Fatherland : nor there alone ; 
for our brethren of the great American Republic are 



CHURCHES AND SERMONS. 301 

coming to our aid with a heartiness and a liberality 
that is worthy of them ; and that is saying all that 
I need say, except that, living among them as I have 
done for more than half my life, and knowing as I 
do the grandeur of their generosity, I am not sur- 
prised at their beneficence, but would have been sur- 
prised had it been otherwise. 

For all this our hearts should be profoundly grate- 
ful, — grateful to pur kind benefactors for their sym- 
pathies and their gifts; above all, grateful to our 
gracious and most merciful Father in heaven, who 
gives them kindly dispositions, and hearts overflow- 
ing with charity in the highest and best sense of the 
term ; and I doubt not that our hearts are grateful 
for goodness granted us in the past, in the present 
emergency, and in the prospects of the future. 

While we are grateful for all this aid, and properly 
appreciate it as demonstrated in the kindness and 
beneficence of others, let those of us who have not 
suffered so severely as others, but have been merci- 
fully spared, endeavor practically to show our grati- 
tude to God for sparing us, by doing our duty in this 
great crisis of our history, in affording such relief as 
may be in our power to those who, in the providence 
of God, are not so well provided for as ourselves. 
Let us not exclusively rely on the beneficence of 
others, but manfully put our own shoulders to the 



302 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

wheel, and help along our destitute brethren by 
sharing with them our spare rooms, our food and 
clothing. 

As a congregation, we have great reason to be 
grateful to our God for his kindness and his care in 
sparing and preserving our church edifice, which has 
cost us so much, not only of material wealth, but 
also of the more precious coin of the heart, while so 
many other churches have been reduced to dust and 
ashes. And, what is still more precious than this 
fair building, precious as it is, the lives of all the 
congregation, so far as I know, have also been spared ; 
not one life lost. It is true, many of you have lost 
your all — no, not your all ; only your earthly all ; 
nor even all that : you have each other ; and, by the 
blessing of Him to whom belongs the silver and the 
gold, you may yet obtain more of earthly good than 
you ever owned before. And, above all, you have 
not lost your Saviour. You cannot lose him, nor 
will he leave you. He is the Friend that is nearer 
and dearer, and sticketh closer, than a brother. 

Other congregations have suffered more severely 
than we, — suffered, not only in the loss of property 
more extensively, but also in precious life. But 
yesterday I heard one brother-pastor make lamenta- 
tion over five members of his church cut off by the 
devouring fire. Let us sympathize with them in 



CHURCHES AND SERMONS. 303 

their losses, their bereavements, and sorrows ; and 
bless our God who has dealt so tenderly with us^ and 
preserved us so well. Afflictions, however severe, 
are really blessings when they lead to reformation of 
the errors which led to their infliction. 

There are several lessons which "v^e may learn from 
tliis affliction, and which, properly learned and prac- 
tised, will make us safer, wiser, and better. Let us 
glance at a few of them. One lesson we may learn, 
and benefit by, is the necessity that exists for using 
materials in building that will not be inflammable 
as a tinder-box. This use of so much wood, and 
that of the most inflammable kind, as has prevailed in 
this city and elsewhere, has been undoubtedly the 
immediate cause of this and similar disasters on this 
continent. Even when the walls were properly con- 
structed of brick or stone, so much pitch-pine and 
other combustibles were employed in and about the 
eaves and roofs, that the destruction of the whole 
structure was rendered inevitable. 

No such conflagrations as are common in this coun- 
try have occurred in the old countries of Europe for 
ages, nor in the nature of things are they possible. 
Why ? Because there the people build with a view 
to safety from fire. They construct no wooden 
houses, and no wooden and pitched roofs ; they build 
the walls, solid walls of brick or stone, and put solid 



304 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

slate or tiles upon tlieir roofs : hence a fire scarcely 
ever extends beyond a single building, and in that 
the fire almost invariably begins with its inflammable 
contents. It is the wisest economy thus to build, and 
cheapest by far in the end, for a house thus con- 
structed lasts for .ages, descending from generation to 
generation ; insurance costs the merest trifle, in many 
cases literally nothing, as it is wholly unnecessary ; no 
danger from within, and none from without. It is 
earnestly to be hoped that our civic authorities will 
learn wisdom from the experiences of the past, and 
absolutely prohibit the erection of such structures as 
those which have provided the fuel for this most 
calamitous conflagration. It is also " devoutly to be 
wished" that others in other towns and cities may 
learn a lesson of wisdom in this respect, from the bit- 
ter experience of us and others who have similarly 
suffered from the infatuated course we have pursued 
in erecting buildings apparently designed, and cer- 
tainly especially adapted, to make magnificent bon- 
fires. Wooden buildings in cities, and particularly 
wooden roofs, whether mansard or not, are too costly, 
because so eminently dangerous and destructive, to 
be any longer indulged in. If men will violate, so 
determinately as they have done, the well-known and 
inexorable laws of nature, or rather laws of God, they 
must continue to bear the terrible consequences of 



CHURCHES AND SERMONS. 805 

such violation of law. " Oh that men would be wise, 
that they would understand this ! " Had this city 
been constructed of proper material, it had not been 
consumed, and thousands, and tens of thousands had 
not been left homeless and wretched ; those bodies of 
men, women, and children, had not been left broken, 
bleeding, and burnt, done to death by a terribly mis- 
taken, expensive, and ruinous economy. What Car- 
lyle said of England is true in a much more intense 
degree of us on this side the Atlantic. 

I quote from memory, and do not attempt to give 
his exact words: "We are growing more and more 
selfish, and prone to slight and show and sham. A 
few ages ago England was wont to awake right 
early in the morning to the fervent prayer, ' Grant, 
O Lord, that we may this day do our duty to our 
best and utmost ; that we may be useful to ourselves, 
each other, and to God, for Christ's sake. Amen.' 
But now it awakes to the prayer, or rather the 
abnegation of prayer, though the inward inspiration 
of the heart which is genuine prayer may be proper- 
ly thus expressed : ' Oh that I may get through this 
day with the minimum of care, labor, and expense, 
and with the maximum of self-indulgence, sham, 
shoddy, ^ and profit, for the Devil's sake. Amen.' 
Unless some gospel be preached and practised more 
elevating than the dismal science of to-day, this 



306 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

cannot long endure. It is only too likely to end in 
petroleum, and that ere long." 

We have the proof of all this but too plainly 
demonstrated. What has caused this terrible disas- 
ter ? Sin, no doubt you will say, and that is true 
enough ; but what kind of sin ? Many kinds ; but 
mainly the sin of cbvetousness as seen in the misera- 
bly mistaken economy. For cheapness and saving, 
and hastening to be rich, using material for buildings 
that is almost as dangerous as dynamite ; saving 
thereby a few hundred dollars at first, but at last 
to result in the loss of as many millions, and lives 
worth more than the millions, — is not this sin? 
Yes, " a sin to be punished by the judges." Would 
that it were everywhere made penal to commit it ! 
and there are probably few of us that are not guilty 
of it in some of its aspects ; and therefore has this 
calamity come upon us. 

From the nature of things, this disaster will press 
more heavily on some people than on others ; from 
which we are by no means to conclude that the^ 
were pre-eminently guilty, or sinners above others in 
these respects. Speaking of the Galileeans whose 
blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices, the 
Saviour of sinners asks, " Suppose ye that these Gali- 
Iseans were sinners above all the Galilseans, because 
they suffered such things ? I tell you nay ; but, ex- 



CHURCHES AND SERMONS. 307 

cept ye repent, je shall all likewise perish. Or those 
eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew 
them, — think ye that they were sinners above all 
men that dwelt in Jerusalem ? I tell you nay ; but, 
except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." They 
were judgments brought on them on account of their 
sins, — general and individual sins. All were guilty, 
all deserved death ; but on only a few was the death 
penalty inflicted, that proper proof of the divine dis- 
pleasure might be manifested, and that those who 
were spared might be warned, repent and be saved, 
while yet there was time and space for repentance, 
reformation, and salvation. And they made a poor 
improvement of the admonitory dispensations in 
those da3^s, who failed to benefit by them, through 
repentance and reformation, as most of them did 
fail, and as many, it is to be feared, will fail to 
benefit by the calamities of the present day. There 
are people, some of them in high places, who, as 
it would appear, cannot be taught, are apparently 
incapable of learning. Thus some of our civic rulers 
still advocate wooden buildings, claiming to be there- 
by the poor man's friend ; and one of them actually 
affirmed that it was the flames from the stone and 
brick of his neighbor's buildings that consumed his 
dwelling, not knowing apparently that it was the 
irresistible fury of the fire of thousands of wooden 



308 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

buildings, by whicli those stone and brick buildings 
were surrounded, that set on fire and consumed the 
wood of these buildings whose walls were brick and 
stone, and that the wood in its consumption set fire 
to his home. When will our rulers learn wisdom ? 
One lesson that we may learn is, that we cannot 
violate the laws of God, whether physical or moral, 
with impunity. Another lesson is, that God mani- 
fests his mercy when he causes calamity to awaken 
us from our sleep of forgetfulness and unconcern, 
when he snatches us from this world's folly and 
infatuation, when he drags us from our self-delusion, 
and shows us our need of a Saviour, by the suffering 
of evil. 

The mercy of God in inflicting individual calamity 
is great, and is often seen and acknowledged by the 
afflicted ones to be very great : more probably are 
drawn to God from a sick-bed, than from a condition 
of the most- perfect health; thousands have blessed 
the God who laid them on beds of suffering and 
sorrow, and consequently separated them from the 
sins in which they had been indulging", and gave time 
and inclination of heart to seek his favor which is 
life, and his loving kindness which is better than life. 
Nor is God less merciful in social, civic, and national 
calamities. The business tendency among men is 
generally running towards forgetfulness of God ; it 



CHURCHES AND SERMONS. 309 

forgets him in the energy and intensity of its employ- 
ment; it has not time for God, and often "he is not 
in all their thoughts ; " it forgets him in the calcula- 
tion of its losses, and still more in the calculation of 
its profits ; and in every way it is disposed to forget 
him, until calamity becomes so great that its profits 
and its losses are equally put out oi sight, and God, 
the inflicter of the calamity, comes into view. As 
long as men have their minds engrossed with losses 
and profits, as long as they are wholly actuated by 
the hope of avoiding the one, and obtaining the 
other — so long they are continually in danger of 
forgetting God. Therefore does the all-wise and 
merciful Father, from time to time, paralyze the 
power of their commerce, and strike terror into 
the civic or national heart, and dries up its numerous 
channels and sources by calamity, in order that the 
individual, the city, or the nation may turn from 
their infatuating idols to himself. 

Sometimes men wonder at the magnitude of a 
calamity, and doubt whether there can be wisdom, 
goodness, and mercy in any thing so widely ruinous 
to worldly interests. We must ever remember that 
God's 'thoughts are not as our thoughts, nor his ways 
as our ways ; " for, as the heavens are higher than the 
earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and 
my thoughts than your thoughts, saith the Lord." 



310 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

What seems very great to us seems very little to 
God. When, more than a hundred miles away, I saw 
the reflection of the great burning going on here, it 
was only because I knew the exact direction to look 
that I found it at all : had I not known it was there, 
I would not have noticed it at all, or seeing it would 
have attracted little or no attention. Great as it 
seemed and really was to the on-lookers, to those one 
hundred and fifty miles away it seemed a compara- 
tive speck on the distant horizon ; and I, knowing its 
extent, wondered at the littleness, and thought how 
small a thing must even this great calamity appear 
to God, who has all the countless worlds of creation 
under his control and care. Is there any thing in that 
lurid spot to show why it should not exist, if there 
are great moral or spiritual purposes to serve by its 
existence ? What is all that, great as it is, to the 
value of a soul ? What is that in comparison of the 
great day that is coming, when not only a part of a 
single city of no great extent, but the whole earth, 
shall be in flames ; when " the heavens being on fire 
shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with 
fervent heat," and you and I and all mankind shall 
stand before the great white throne to give account 
of the deeds done by us, whether they be good or 
bad, and be judged in accordance therewith, and to 
then enter on our endless condition of weal or woe ? 



cnvRcnES and sermons, 311 

Permit me, then, in conclusion, to direct you all, in 
this tune of trouble, to the true and 07il9/ remedy for 
all evil. There is but one remedy for the evils of 
the land, for the evils of the city, for the evils of the 
individual, and the sins which bring them, — the Lord 
Jesus Christ. He is the remedy for all our evils. 
Nothing will or can cure those evils but uniting our 
souls to Jesus : .that alone can give us light and power 
rightl}^ to use this world without abusing it. Nothing 
else will enable us to meet any and every disaster 
without dismay, even grim death itself in any form ; 
but leaning on the arm of the Beloved we need fear 
no evil ; clothed in the robe of his righteousness, we 
shall calmly contemplate " the war of elements, the 
wreck of matter, and the crush of worlds ; " for 

" 'Mid flaming worlds, in this arrayed, 
With joy shall we lift up our head." 

Beloved friends, let me, then, commend you to 
Christ, the physician by whom alone " the ills that 
flesh is heir to " can be alleviated and remedied. Oh 
that I could lead every one of you to Him who is 
the King of kings and the Lord of Lords, and induce 
you every one, and all men, never to trust in the pre- 
scriptions of men for remedying the evils of your 
hearts and your lives, the evils of the city, the nation, 
and the world. 

There is but one Saviour, the help and the hope of 



312 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

Israel in the time of trouble, — the Lord Jesus Christ, 
who calleth not the righteous but sinners to repent- 
ance, and is calling on us loudly by public, social, and 
individual affection in various forms, and entreating 
us by his word, his spirit, and his providence, saying, 
" Turn ye, turn ye : why will ye die ? " 

" Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath 
not done it ? " God is now giving us a call to take 
his word, to take his character, to stand up for him, 
to endeavor to remedy the evil sin has brought into 
the world and into this community. He is giving 
us a call to be his stewards, his agents for the di-spen- 
sation of his bounties : let us seek to be faithful in our 
stewardship. The time will come, and come soon, 
much sooner than many of us suppose, when notwith- 
standing all our bodily health, strength, and property, 
" we shall be no longer stewards." Let us contem- 
plate and prepare for that time, by being faithful in 
our stewardship to which God has called us, — faith- 
ful unto death, and we shall receive crowns of life. 

Let us give God the glory ; give him glory in the 
attributes of his nature imperishable as they are, and 
shining as they, do in the eye of faith, in moral and 
spiritual beauty. Give him glory by recognizing 
and obeying his wondrously good' and glorious laws, 
physical, moral, and spiritual, by which he sustains, 
controls, and governs the universe of matter and of in- 



CHURCHES AND SERMONS. 313 

telligence, and the violation of which inevitably brings 
disaster and ruin. Give him glory, for he is holy, 
glorious in holiness ; he is the King in his beauty, 
the chief among ten thousand, and the one altogether 
lovely. Give him glory, for he is just : his justice 
demanded a glorious victim, and his glorious love 
procured and paid it, and paid it for us. Give him 
glory ; for, notwithstanding all our sufferings, he is 
long-suffering, and waits to be gracious. Give him 
glory, for he is loving. We read of Codrus the Athe- 
nian, who died for his country, for his friends ; and of 
Curtius the Roman, who died for his native city. 
These brave men died ; and a grateful and enthusi- 
astic people wept over them, and enshrined their 
memory as a precious memorial in their hearts and 
on the page of history. But our dear Lord and Mas- 
ter died for his enemies : he loved those that hated 
him, did good to those who despitefuUy used and 
persecuted him and crucified him. He is fairer than 
the children of men, the rose of Sharon, the lily of 
the valley. 

But if you will not give him glory now^ by repent- 
ance of sin, and faith in Jesus the Saviour of sinners, 
and love for him, the time will come when you must 
bow to his sceptre ; for he is as glorious in his power 
as in his holiness and truth. He has said, " The wicked 
shall be turned into hell, and all nations that forget 



314 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

God ; " and his own right arm shall get him the vic- 
tory over all his incorrigible enemies. And as stiff- 
necked and rebellious sinners are cast forth from his 
presence, and as they fall from the heights of heaven, 
and the burning pit 3^awns to receive them, the cho- 
rus song of millions of millions of adoring saints and 
angels shall peal around the throne of God, saying, 
" Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God 
Almighty ; just and true are all thy ways, thou king 
of saints ; who shall not fear thee, and glorify thy 
name?'* 

The following sermon was preached July 1, 1877, 
in the Unitarian Hall, Saint John, by the Rev. John 
Wills, from the text, " Shall a trumpet be blown in 
the city, and the people not be afraid ? Shall there 
be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it?'' 
(Amos iii. 6.) 

Self is the universal idol before which every one 
bows down in abject adulation. It is in obedience 
to its oracles, so superlatively deceptive, that we lay 
the onus of all our misfortunes on the shoulders of 
others, instead of on our own. In casting about for 
their cause, we scarcely ever light upon the true one, 
namely, our own culpable inattention to the require- 
ments of nature's changeless laws ; and when, blind- 
ed by our idolatry of self, we can find no adequate 



CHURCHES AND SERMONS. 315 

cause for our greatest troubles outside of ourselves, 
our egotism, our self-sufficiency, our pride, all unite 
in making God responsible therefor. So we call 
them judgments, when, in fact, they are mercies, 
messengers of love, sent to us from our Father who 
is in heaven. 

There are times, however, when the idol self is 
hurled from its pedestal in the human soul ; when 
the brighter, the better side of our nature triumphs 
over our self-hood, and compels us to be generously 
disinterested, unselfishly benevolent. We have had 
full proof of this since the wholesale destruction of 
our cit}^ by the late tornado of fire, that swept away, 
in its desolating progress, so many of our beautiful 
homes, hallowed by the associations of the past, by 
the memories of childhood, and by the b'est affections 
of the heart. The universal sympathy that our great 
calamity has called forth leaves us no room to doubt 
that there is a God-like spirit in man, to which the 
Almighty imparts his inspiration. Indeed, if we of 
this stricken city do not perceive the unearthl}^ 
beauty of the inner courts of humanity, and if we 
fail to fathom the great reservoir of unselfishness that 
fills its deepest springs, ready to burst forth at the 
anguished cry of our brother-man, we are either the 
most blinded, the most imbecile, or the most ungrate- 
ful, of created intelligences. But, whether we see 



316 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

it or not, tlie star of human nature shines out most 
brightly in the darkest night of human woe. Say- 
not, tlien^ that the world is governed solely by self- 
interest. There is within every child of man a seed 
of divinity, that, when developed by circumstances, 
dwarfs his littleness to an almost invisible point, and 
magnifies his greatness almost to the dimensions of a 
god. 

We short-sighted mortals are, unfortunately, too 
prone to regard the things as wholly evil which are 
often instruments, in the hands of Omnipotence, by 
which he is working out for our race an exceeding 
and eternal weight of glory. 

Calamities are not, as some imagine, necessarily 
judgments : rather, indeed, should we esteem them 
mercies. 

Hawthorne once said, " Perhaps, if we could pene- 
trate nature's secrets, we should find that what we 
call weeds are more essential to the well-being of the 
world than the most precious fruit or grain." Even 
so it might well be said, that, if we could unravel 
the mystery of life, we should find that what we 
call evil is perhaps more essential to the welfare 
of mankind than what we esteem to be our chiefest 
good. There can, indeed, be no evil in the sense in 
which we understand the word; for God is the 
Author of all things, and he is wholly good. To 



CnURCIIES AND SERMONS. 317 

assert, therefore, the existence of evil, save only as 
the negation of good, if not in some mysterious way 
its germ, is to libel the Almighty, to call in question 
his omnipotence, and to proclaim that there is a 
mightier still than he, another deity besides the 
Eternal, usurping his thorne, dashing from his brow 
the crown of goodness, and wresting from his grasp 
the sceptre of righteousness. Such a thought is too 
intensely absurd, too manifestly impious, to be enter- 
tained for a moment by any rational creature who 
pauses to consider the full meaning of the word 
" omnipotent." Every thing that happens must be 
in strict conformity with the all-wise, all-perfect laws 
of the "great directing Mind of all." Whoever 
attempts to violate these is made to feel that they 
cannot be violated with, impunity. In the very 
nature of things, the laws of the Eternal are — what 
the laws of the Medes and Persians were merely 
fabled to be — " unchangeable," fixed as the pillars 
of the skies, immovable as the foundations of the 
everlasting hills. Evil is often used by the sacred 
T^^riters, as in our text, to represent a state of war 
and its attendant misery. 

"Shall a trumpet" — the signal of alarm and 
invasion — "be blown in the city, and the people 
not be afraid ? Shall there be evil in a city, and the 
Lord hath not done it?" If the people take not the 



318 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

alarm when it is sounded, and provide not for their 
defence and safeguard, there will, of course, be evil 
in the city ; i.e., the enemy will come in like a flood, 
and prevail against it. Such is the natural order of 
things in both the moral and the physical world. So 
the Eternal has ordained that the indolent, who 
disregard the warnings of approaching peril, shall 
sufPer for their criminal contempt of his righteous 
laws. 

Thus, when we read in the book of the prophet 
Isaiah, who represents himself as the mouthpiece of 
the Lord, " I am Jehovah, and none else ; forming 
light, and creating darkness ; making peace, and 
creating evil : I, eTehovah, am the author of all these 
things," we are to understand the son of Amoz as 
teaching the children of Israel that the natural, 
inevitable consequence of their departure from the 
law of their God, in the observance of which their 
national safety lay, would be the triumph of their 
enemies, and the ruin of their nation. So we see 
that there is a sense in which it may be quite truly 
said that Jehovah is the author of good and evil, as 
of light and darkness. 

All things happen according to the good pleasure 
of his will, in conformity with those eternally un- 
changeable laws written with the finger of omnipo- 
tence on every page of the wondrous book of nature. 



CHURCHES AND SERMONS. 319 

" Shall," then, " a trumpet be blown in the city, and 
the people not be afraid? Shall there," then^ "be 
evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it ? " No, 
a thousand times no ! for the Lord doeth all things ; 
causing the fire to burn, and the water to drown, by 
the unerring operation of those natural laws that he 
has imprinted on both. As men sow, they shall 
assuredly reap ; and yet it is God that giveth the 
increase, whether they sow the world-wide field of 
humanity with the brazen tares of vice or the golden 
wheat of virtue. 

If they sow the seeds of national weakness, how 
can they expect to reap the fruit of national strength ? 
All the evils that were threatened by the ancient 
prophets of Israel, from Moses to Malachi, were the 
necessary consequences of inattention to or wilful 
neglect of the laws that were instituted for the bene- 
fit of the people, by observing which peace would 
undoubtedly have been preserved within theif^ bor- 
ders, and prosperity in their palaces. But, by the non- 
observance of the means ordained for their defence, 
they were sure to fall before their enemies, just as 
the ripe corn falls before the sickle of the reaper. 
The Almighty was said to create the evil which 
results now^ as then^ from disobedience to the law 
that is written by nature, and therefore by God, on 
every human heart. As for those who impiously or 



320 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

ignorantly assert that every great calamity is a spe- 
cial visitation of the Almighty, for the wickedness of 
men, their impiety is only exceeded by their folly, 
and their ignorance by their presumption. There is 
no evil of which man can be guilty, that can prevent 
the glorious sun from rising, and the blessed rain from 
falling, upon him. And we would do well to con- 
sider, that, whatever was said " hy them of old time^^ 
this great truth was most distinctly taught by Him 
who brought life and immortality to light. Did he 
not assure his disciples that the heavenly Father 
maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, 
and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust ? In 
the nature of things, apart from any immediate inter- 
ference of Deity, righteousness exalteth, and unright- 
eousness debaseth, a nation. But the notion so 
prevalent among the Jews, and not less prevalent 
among the loudest-voiced professors of Christianity, 
that those who are overtaken by great calamities 
must necessarily be great sinners, was combated 
strongly by Jesus, as quite as dishonoring to his heav- 
enly Father as it was contrary to his righteous gov- 
ernment of the world. What did he say when told 
of the Galilaeans whose blood Pilate mingled with 
their sacrifices, slaying them at the altar? Did he 
say that their slaughter was a special judgment from 
the Almighty ? No, indeed ; but he queried of those 



CHURCHES AND SERMONS. 321 

who were discussing their terrible fate, " Suppose ye 
that these Galilseans were sinners above all the Gali- 
Iseans, because they suffered such things?" "Or 
those eighteen upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, 
and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above 
all men that dwell in Jerusalem?" And to both 
questions he replied with an indignant negative, say- 
ing, " Nay ; but except ye repent ye shall all likewise 
perish." It is only when men's calamities can be 
clearly traced to their sin, that the former can be 
justly attributed to the latter. If one of the fiendish 
incendiaries who were prowling about our city, as 
the late terrible conflagration was mowing down our 
habitations, had been caught in the act of applying 
the torch, and then and there summarily executed 
by the infuriated multitude, his fate might have been 
reasonably regarded as the God-awarded penalty of 
his crime ; for in such a case the vox populi might 
have been fairly assumed to be, as it sometimes is, 
the true expression of the vox Dei, But the helpless 
condition of the houseless thousands that thronged 
our flaming streets on that never-to-be-forgotten 
night of the 20th of June forbade the conclusion that 
they were suffering specially for their sins. The 
pure Christian religion rejects such an idea, not only 
as un-Christlike, but as monstrous and unnatural, 
heartless and inhuman. If a man be assaulted and 



322 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

maimed by a villain, or if sickness invade his honse- 
liold, and his dear ones are cut off before his eyes, 
shall such calamities be attributed to the finger of 
God, specially lifted up to inflict them? Shall the 
innocent man or the suffering family be pointed at 
as an awful example of the retribution that overtakes 
the godless ? Scribes and Pharisees only, who well 
deserve to be denounced as hypocrites, could reply to 
these questions in the affirmative. 

Are other cities, where the fire-fiend has not held 
high carnival as with us, less sinful than we are? 
Was it our wickedness that called down fire from 
heaven to consume our city? Was it the greater 
purity of its northern portions that exempted them 
from experiencing the fury of the fiery tempest? 
Did some good angel guard the Roman Catholic 
cathedral, and drive away the fire-fiend from its 
sacred precincts ? 

How strange that in this enlightened age, as we 
are fond of calling it, men are just as much lovers 
of the marvellous as the superstitious disciples who 
asked the Master, "who sinned," — the man blind 
from his birth, " or his parents, that he was born 
blind " ! 

In this age of scientific wonders, of steam and elec- 
tricity, when we train the sunbeam to paint our pic- 
tures, and harness the lightnings to the chariot of 



CHURCHES AND SERMONS. 323 

science, that they may carry our messages from one 
hemisphere to another with the rapidity of thought, 
and enable us even to audibly converse with our ab- 
sent friends, is it not passing strange, that in such 
an age as this, there are men just as superstitious as 
those of whom Shakespeare, in his day, tells us that 
there was 

' ' ^No natural exhalation in the sky, 
No scape of nature, no distempered day, 
No common wind, no customed event, 
But they will pluck away its natural cause, 
And call them meteors, prodigies, and signs. 
Abortives, presages, and tongues of heaven." 

And is it not still more strange, that there are 
to-day ministers of the gospel who gravel}^ tell us 
that it was the breath of God, miraculously applied, 
that kindled the flames of the recent terrifically de- 
structive fire ; that it was a, judgment sent to us 
direct from heaven, as though we, in this city, were 
sinners above all the dwellers on the American con- 
tinent ? It would not be at all surprising, if ignorant, 
half-civilized men were thus to dub every great 
misfortune a fiery tongue of heaven, a judgment on 
the stricken. 

But to my view it is, to say the least, most extraor- 
dinary, that the enlightened inhabitants of such a 
city as Saint John could be guilty of the egregious 



324 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

folly of attributing the partial destruction of their 
city by a fire, to the judgment of Heaven for the 
sins of the wicked within its borders, as if a just God 
would punish the innocent with the guilty, the right- 
eous along with the wicked. If so be that the Lord 
sent his angel to destroy our city, were there not 
even ten righteous men in all its churches, for whose 
sake he would have recalled the angel of destruction ? 
Has God forgotten to be just, as well as gracious? or 
is Saint John worse than the city respecting which 
we read in the book of Genesis, that the Lord said 
unto Abraham, '•'-I will not destroy it for ten^s sake " ? 
Oh ! it is very sad to think that such a mean idea of 
" the Judge of the earth " should be not only sanc- 
tioned, but encouraged, by some who claim to be — • 
2)ar excellence — our spiritual leaders. 

If, indeed, all that has occurred within the last 
fortnight could be reversed, if the fire had not 
burned the inflammable materials with which it came 
in contact, then surely there would have -been ample 
grounds for supposing that not the Eternal who lov- 
eth righteousness, but some extraneous power, foreign 
to the universe of which we are natives, had lifted up 
his finger in our midst ; that we had been visited by 
some supernatural, supermundane, super-celestial 
agent, who had no respect for the universal law in 
obedience to which the flames consumed our habi- 



CHURCHES AND SEE^fONS. 325 

tations. Oli! it is monstrous, it is impious, it is 
blasphemous, to attribute the burning of our city to 
the direct agency of the good God, whose tender mer- 
cies are over all his works. If, knowing the properties 
of lire, we build houses of materials, that, so far from 
offering any resistance to its action, actually invite its 
destructive embraces, providing fuel for its flame, how 
can we, how dare we, charge upon the Almighty the 
natural consequence of our own foolhardiness ? In 
an open country where houses are isolated, and the 
burning of one does not, under certain unfavorable 
circumstances, necessarily involve that of many, man 
may please himself in the building of his house ; but 
he has no right to do so in a populous city, where the 
lives and property of thousands may be jeopardized 
by his independent action. This is one of the great 
lessons of the terrible calamity that has befallen us ; 
and I trust that we shall not altogether fail in reading 
it aright, while it is my earnest hope that we may 
embody its teaching in the reconstruction of our city. 
My friends, I see no reason for despondency, 
much less for despair, in our present circumstances. 
As wrote the apostle, " We are cast down, but not 
destroyed." Might I venture to prophesy, I would 
say. Soon shall the winter of our loss be succeeded 
by the summer of our gain. Soon shall our night of 
misfortune melt into the morning of prosperity. 



826 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

The brightest flash issues from the darkest cloud; 
and oh, how beautiful is the hope-tinted bow of 
promise that spans the horizon of what seems to me 
to be our not far distant future ! 

I was forcibly struck with a beautiful passage in 
yesterday's " Banner of Light." " The heavier the 
loss," said the writer, treating of our misfortune, 
" the greater the gain. Burnt districts may easily 
be rebuilt ; but the energetic play of sympathy, 
generosity, energy, and courage, which they have 
evoked, these go to the perpetual strength of human 
character, and remain always to illustrate the capa- 
city of human conduct." 

Our great calamity has, like all our trials, its 
counter-balancing compensations. It has brought 
out in bold relief the divinest traits of our much- 
maligned human nature. And how refreshing it is, 
as I remarked last Sunday, to be reminded by the 
almost universal sympathy that our great misfor- 
tune has elicited, of the unselfish benevolence, the 
secret springs of affection, that underlie the super- 
ficial selfhood of humanity, so seldom brought to 
light because it is only on such exceptional occa- 
sions as that of the recent conflagration, that these 
emanations of the divinity that dwells within us 
are evoked from the inner depths of our nature. 
Such traits redeem it from its littleness. When its 



CnURCHES AND SERMONS. 327 

depths are thus stirred by the angel of mercy, the 
artificial gives place to the real, and the earnestness 
of those who hasten to the relief of their suffering 
fellows grades all our petty differences to the high 
level of that Christlike charity which always finds 
its best expression in alleviating the common distress, 
in sharing each other's griefs, and in bearing each 
other's burdens. 

Thus to do, is to fulfil the royal law of love. 
Thus to do, is to elevate the human to the divine, — 
to crown our manhood with the glory, honor, and 
immortality, which constitute the inalienable inherit- 
ance of the sons of God. The first and most spirit- 
ual lesson of our recent calamity is, that we are all 
brethren, that one great life pulses through all our 
veins, that one common nature links us all togeth- 
er with the golden chain of a common affection, so 
that, if one member of the great human brotherhood 
suffer, the pang that rends his heart finds a respon- 
sive chord in many another human breast. We are 
unapt indeed to learn, if our great disaster has not 
taught us that, although we are many members, we 
are, after all, but one bod}^ This is the Christ the- 
ology as it existed from the foundation of the world, 
and as it was taught both by Jesus and by Paul. 
Thus we read in the first Epistle to the Corinthians 
(xii. 12), "As the body is one, and hath many 



328 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

members, and all the members of that one body, be- 
ing many, are still one body, so also is the Christ. 
For by one spirit — the spirit of love -r- we are all 
baptized, not with material water, but with the 
water of the river of life, into one body, and united 
into one sacred fellowship, — the fellowship of the 
spirit of humanity, which is truly and essentially 
divine." 

The laws which govern the whole realm of nature, 
and especially human nature, are not partial but 
general, not local but universal, not of the earth 
earthly, but of the heavens heavenly. And the 
greatest of all these laws is the law of love. He 
alone is poor who has not a soul to give to him that 
needeth. He is rich beyond the dreams of avarice, 
though poor in the world's estimation, whose great 
soul can only be satisfied by sharing with the needy 
the little that he possesses. 

This, doubtless, was what was meant by Jesus 

when he said, " He that hath two coats, let him 

impart to him that hath none," " Now," said the 

great apostle of the Gentiles, — " now abideth faith, 

hope, charity, these three ; but the greatest of these 

is charity." 

" One faith, one hope, one Lord, 

One God alone, we know: 

Brethren we are ; let every heart 

With kind affection glow.'* 



CHURCHES AND SERMONS. 329 

The following is an outline of the sermon preached 
in the Saint John's Church, by the rector of the 
parish of Saint Mark, the Rev. G. M. Armstrong, on 
the Sunday after the fire, from the text, " I know, O 
Lord, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in 
faithfulness hast afflicted me" (Ps. cxix. 75). 

In preparing to address you after the fearful deso- 
lation which has come upon our city, I feel quite un- 
able to do so, as I believe you are scarcely able to 
give a continued attention to any poor words which 
I might speak to you of the dreadful ruin which has 
befallen so many of your homes, and for the present 
at least has blighted your fondest prospects. I shall 
not attempt, therefore, to dwell upon the lowness to 
which our once lofty city has been in one short day 
brought, nor upon how the more lofty flames tri- 
umphed over the riches, the pride, and the glory 
of it, showing us how useless and vain all our efforts 
must prove, unless under the Almighty's guardianship 
and care. How is pride confounded, and hope even 
overthrown, so that the hearts of many are sinking 
under the struggle I but, to those who look to God, 
He will in this terrible hour come forth and re- 
awaken their courage, and strengthen them with 
might, enabling them to sustain their trial, and rise 
above it. It may help you to do so, if I can lead 



330 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

you to consider the Lord's dealings with his people, 
which are always profitable subjects for meditation, 
prayer, and thanksgiving. By his dealings, I mean 
the manner or the means by which we are brought 
to know his name, to taste of his salvation, to be 
directed to his service, and trained up for his glory. 
These dealings are various, they are often myste- 
rious, they are sometimes most painful; but the 
object and result of them all is to bring those who 
are rightly exercised by them to know and love the 
Lord. Times of tribulation are often blessed to this 
end; but at such times we have need of earnest 
prayer, that our trials may be thus sanctified; and 
most suitable in this respect is that petition in our 
litany, " In all time of our tribulation, . . . and ul 
the day of judgment, good Lord, deliver us." 

The Christian, viewing all his trials as the dispensa- 
tion of his heavenly Father, is perfectly satisfied with 
them ; and instead of repining and fainting on the 
one hand, or hardening himself and affecting to 
despise them on the other, he looks at himself and 
his present circumstances in the light of the word of 
God, and, having arrived at his conclusion, expresses 
it in the language of the text, " I know, O Lord, 
that thy judgments are right, and that thou in 
faithfulness hast afflicted me." The Bible affords us 
abundant proof of this blessed assurance on the part 



CHURCHES AND SERMONS. 331 

of the Lord's people. The cases of Aaron, Job, Eli, 
David, the Shunammite, and Hezekiah were referred 
to as those who yielded to God's appointments in 
dutiful silence, being fully confident of his wisdom 
and goodness. 

The souls of some of you, who are now especially 
subject to the divine chastisement which has so 
recently befallen us, may sometimes be cast down 
within you, and you may be ready to despair ; you 
would give any thing, perhaps, to be able to take a 
bright and solacing view of your troubles. Most 
earnestly, then, do I pray — and will you not join me 
in doing so? — that it may please God, the Holy 
Spirit, who is the Comforter, to bless at this time the 
consideration of the text before us, that we may enter 
into its precious secrets, and be enabled to join in* 
the pathetic but joj^ful affirmation of the Psalmist 
to which it introduces us. 

There are three points to which I would especially 
draw your attention, — the nature, the author, and 
the source, of the sufferings to which David refers. 
As to their nature, he calls them judgments and 
afflictions. In the former sense he regards them as 
those divine arrangements and decrees whereby the 
Almighty vindicates his character and holiness. He 
cannot see his name dishonored, and his character 
forgotten, without vindicating them. Thus, where 



332 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

sins are public, there are sooner or later public judg- 
ments ; while if committed in the secret of a man's 
heart, before God, the judgment will be such as will 
mark out most distinctly God's hatred of that sin, 
clearly enough, at any rate, to strike the mind of 
him who desires the glory of the divine character, 
and would see, in all God's dealings with him, the 
purpose he has in view. God's judgments are in- 
tended to convince us of his holiness, and to show 
us that he will not bear iniquity. 

Again, David regards the sufferings referred to as 
afflictions, the bitterness and painfulness of which 
were very trying, and intended for correction. This, 
however, has nothing to do with punishment. The 
people of God, properly speaking, are never pun- 
ished, because punishment implies the exacting of a 
penalty ; but God's people have no penalty to pay, 
for the penalty has already been paid for them : but 
they may be, and are, corrected as a means of im- 
provement, and every child of God needs correction 
at times. The holiest and most advanced Christian 
has many lessons to learn; nor is there one who 
would venture to say he needs no correction, not one 
who ever thinks that he is sanctified enough. There 
is a need before such trials. They are blessings in 
disguise. They are intended to smite our lusts, and 
develop our graces; to make us humbler, wiser, 



CnURCHES AND SERMONS. 333 

holier, more grateful, more sympathizing; so that 
we may well look up and say, " I know, O Lord, that 
thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithful- 
ness hast afflicted me." 

As to the author of these sufferings, they are 
attributed by the Psalmist to the Lord, — " thy 
judgments ; " " thou in faithfulness hast afflicted." 
Similar exclamations of the Old Testament saints 
were here spoken of. " Is there an evil in the city, 
and I have not done it ? " says God. " I will smite 
her corn, and wine, and oil; I will lead her into 
the wilderness, " &c. God reserves to himself the 
authority to execute judgment or visit affliction 
upon his creatures.* All trial is his doing. We need 
not be afraid of attributing it to him. It does not 
spring out of the ground ; there is nothing of chance 
about it ; it is not man's doing, though men may be 
the immediate instruments. It matters not what 
means may be used. It signifies little whether it be 
the fiery trial through which we have just passed, 
the fearful pestilence, or the terrific war-cry which is 
now sounding in distant lands: God uses persons 
and things alike as his instruments to fulfil his own 
purposes, and carry out his own designs. They are, 
however, only instruments and second causes ; they 
can go so far and no farther; they are under the 
control of the Almighty, and in his hands his people 



334 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

are safe ; they can look up to him as their heavenly 
Father, and in the language of our text refer all such 
things to him as their author. 

Then, as to the source of their sufferings, thej^ are 
traced up in the text to the faithfulness of God. 
Their true origin is to be found in God's justice, 
wisdom, and faithfulness ; and there we may rest. 
Whatever he determines must be right. It may be 
very mysterious, very irksome, very excruciating, to 
us: nature may shrink from it; but the child of 
God has implicit confidence in his Father, so he 
curbs his will, and orders his tumultuous passions 
into silence, and says, " It is right, I am sure of it. 
I cannot see the why and the wherefore now ; but 
God is his own interpreter, and in his own good time 
he will make it plain : what I know not now, I shall 
know hereafter." Thus David sets it down to God's 
faithfulness, that he is afflicted. God would have 
been unfaithful, had he not afflicted him. Affliction 
is a covenant blessing, and one which God gives 
without requiring us to ask for it. It is a special 
token of God's love, and therefore a matter of 
repeated promise, in the fulfilment of which the 
faithfulness of God is gloriously displayed; and it 
is by trials of one kind or another, suited to our vari- 
ous temperaments, that God graciously and faithfully 
perfects the Christian character in his people. Of 



CHURCHES AND SERMONS. 335 

this the Psalmist was assured : he knew it by his own 
experience, and so felt absolute confidence in God. 
Here, then, is joy and peace in believing, even in 
the midst of tribulation. We cannot escape the 
waves of this troublesome world ; but here we have 
in the character of God our rock and our high tower, 
in which we may safely hide. Happy are they who 
'^an take this view of their afQictions. If only we 
can learn to trust God as our Father in it, then 
at once we shall receive beauty for ashes, the oil of 
joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the 
spirit of heaviness. Then we shall see that these 
cheerless and desolate days, these hours of bitter 
tears, come not by chance, but are sent us in faith- 
fulness and love. 

*' They come to lay us lowly and humbled in the dust, 
All seK-deception swept away, all creature hope and trust; 
Our helplessness, our vileness, our guiltiness, to own, 
And flee for hope and refuge to Christ, and Christ alone. 

They come to draw us nearer to our Father and our Lord, 
More earnestly to seek his face, to listen to his word, 
And to feel, if now around us a desert-land we see, 
Without the star of promise what would its darkness be ? '* 

The afflicted Christian does not envy the portion 
of those who are living at ease in the indulgence of 



336 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

this world's good things ; nor would he give up what 
he has, for all they possess. But they, on the other 
hand, will surely, one day, grieve over their folly in 
having neglected his. Their riches are becoming 
poorer every day, and their pleasures more insipid ; 
and what will they do, and how will they appear, 
when eternity is at hand ? 

Should the attention of any such here this morn- 
ing have been arrested by the words they have 
heard, I would entreat them to forsake their lying 
vanities, and to unite themselves with the true Israel, 
who are journeying to the better country, even the 
heavenly, and who drink by the way of the fountains 
of living waters. Come and join us ; and, though you 
may suffer with us now, you shall reign with us here- 
after. Jesus will be with you in whatever he ordains 
for you ; and, once within those gates of the Jerusa- 
lem which is above, there shall be no more sighing 
forever, for God himself shall wipe away all tears 
from our eyes. 

I beseech you therefore, by the mercies of God, 
by the mercies which he is able and willing to dis- 
pense to you in the midst of your trial, by all the 
necessity and the piteous helplessness of souls strick- 
en by the hand of God, that you present yourselves 
unto him, your souls and bodies, a living sacrifice. 



CnURCUES AND SERMONS. 337 

Give- liim your hearts, give him your love, give him 
your confidence ; and so you will be enabled humbly 
and gratefully to acknowledge the righteousness of 
his "judgments," and the "faithfulness" of his cor 
rections. 



CHAPTER XX. 

MISCELLANEOUS MATTEKS OF INTEEEST. 

The Newspapers of Saint John. — Historical Notice. — Biographical 
Sketch of the Life of Lieut.-Gov. Tilley, C.B. — The Life of John 
Boj'd, a Private Citizen. — Examples of Saint John's sterling 
Men. — The City Government. — The Fire Department. — The 
Insurance Companies. — Little Wanderers' Home. — Incidents 
of the Fire. — Conclusion. 

rriHE great haste with which a work of this kind 
must be prepared, in order to reach the hands 
of the reading pubhc while the matter is still a 
prominent topic of interest, precludes the possibility 
of writing a book that would be as complete as the 
author might earnestly desire, and makes it imprac- 
ticable to publish a book in which there will not be 
many serious and manifest errors. But with a feel- 
ing that we have made a sincere attempt to do our 
duty, and believing the character of our intentions 
will cause our scrutinizing readers to overlook acci- 
dental omissions or mistakes, we shut our eyes, and 
send this volume out to take its place among those 
productions to the making of which there is no end. 

338 



MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS OF INTEREST. 339 

The newspaper publishers of Saint John suffered 
exceedingly ; not onl}^ by the loss of their buildings, 
types, and presses, but by the destruction of all their 
private files, libraries, and editorial paraphernalia. 
The fortitude with which they met those irreparable 
losses was only exceeded by their enterprise in 
getting again in publishing order. Their printers 
were at work in the few job printing-offices which 
were spared ; and their editions were on the street 
for sale while the buildings in which they took 
refuge were still clouded with smoke from the ruins. 
A sketch of the journals published in Saint John, 
printed about a year before the fire, furnishes us 
with some interesting information concerning this 
peculiarly afflicted profession. 

" ' The Saint John Daily News ' had the honor of 
being the oldest newspaper. It was started in 1838, 
as a tri-weekly morning paper with a weekly issue, 
by George E. Fenety, Esq. Its price was one penny, 
— being the first penny paper ever established in the 
British Empire. It was originally of about foolscap 
size, but from time to time was enlarged, and in 
1863 was the largest morning paper in Saint John. 
Its founder was an advocate of liberalism, and was 
especially earnest in his advocacy of responsible 
government, which he had the satisfaction of seeing 
an accomplished fact. Mr. Fenety became Queen's 



340 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

printer for New Brunswick in 1863, and placed the 
' News ' in charge of Mr. Willis as editor and gen- 
eral manager, himself still retaining ownership. 

" In December, 1865, Mr. Fenety sold the ' News ' 
office and paper to Messrs. Edward Willis, James 
Davis, and Stephen Smith, the latter soon retiring ; 
after which the establishment was conducted by 
Willis & Davis till 18T2, Mr. Willis stiU retaining 
his former position on the paper. In December, 
1868, it started out in a daily issue, in addition to its 
tri-weekly and weekly issues, which it has contin- 
ued till the present. It was soon after enlarged to 
its present size. In 1872 Mr. Willis purchased Mr. 
Davis's interest, and managed the paper until July, 
1873, when he gave Mr. Mott, who had been ac- 
countant in the concern for several years, an interest 
in the paper and printing establishment. Mr. Willis 
manages the editorial, and Mr. Mott the business 
department, 

" Mr. Willis has represented the city and county 
of Saint John in the local legislature for five years, 
being elected for a second term of four years at the 
1874 election. He has been for three years, and 
now is, a member of the New Brunswick govern- 
ment. The ' News ' was among the first advocates 
of confederation, and is a strong supporter of free 
non-sectarian schools. It has three issues, — a daily, 
tri-weekly, and weekly. 



MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS OF INTEREST. 341 

" Mr. Willis was formerly editor of the ' Courier,' 
and manao^er of the office when he left to assume 
charge of the ' News ; ' and, still previous to that, 
was editor and proprietor of the ' Western Recorder,' 
which he published in Carleton for several years. 

" Next in age was the ' Globe,' a daily evening 
paper, which was started in 1858 by Mr. Ross 
Woodrow. A few years previous he had been en- 
gaged in publishing the ' Morning Times.' News- 
papers then were not published oftener than tri- 
weekly, and he conceived the idea of publishing the 
paper in a daily issue ; but as public opinion was not 
ripe for such an enterprise, and his means were 
limited, he failed in the undertaking. 

" In 1856 he commenced a weekly paper called 
the ' British Constitution,' which meeting with a fair 
success, he started the ' Daily Evening Globe,' which 
was in the interest of the regular Liberal party, 
which was headed by Hon. S. L. Tilley. 

"After running it about two years, he sold out to 
John y. Ellis and Christopher Armstrong in Decem- 
ber, 1861. Mr. Armstrong came from Ireland when 
very young, and learned the printing trade in the 
' Morning News ' office with Mr. Fenety. Mr. EUis 
is a native of Halifax, where he learned the printer's 
trade. He came to Saint John about eighteen years 
ago, and served as reporter on the editorial staff of 
the ' Morning News ' and other papers. 



342 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

" The ' Globe ' occupied premises at the corner of 
Princess and Canterbury Streets, in rooms formerly 
occupied by the ' Colonial Empire ' (and the ' Tel- 
egraph' was in the same building), in November, 
1864, when both were burnt out ; but neither lost 
an issue. The office was then moved to the prem- 
ises recently occupied, by the ' Tribune ; ' but in 
May, 1871, the proprietors purchased and moved 
into the spacious building on Prince William Street, 
which they now occupy. 

" Both being practical printers as well as writers, 
success attended their enterprise ; and the paper in 
May, 1867, was enlarged to pages of seven columns, 
and in July, 1874, to eight columns, with proportion- 
ate increase in length. The ' Globe ' maintained 
the political character with which it started, until 
the Liberal party divided on the question of confed- 
eration, when it sided with the opponents of the 
confederation policy. The ' Globe ' has a weekly 
issue. 

' The Daily Telegraph ' was the product of the 
union of two papers. Mr. John Livingston in 1862 
started the ' Telegraph ' as a tri-weeldy and weekly. 
In June, 1864, it was issued as a morning daily, and 
continued thus about a year ; and, though a credit to 
the enterprise of the proprietor, proved ahead of its 
time. It then went back to its tri-weekly issue. 



MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS OF INTEREST. 343 

Mr. William Elder started tlie ' Morning Journal ' 
in May, 1865, as a tri-weekly and weekly. The 
proprietors of the two papers, conceiving that the 
time had come for the permanent establishment of a 
dail}^ mornSig paper, effected a union in 1869. 

" The ' Telegraph,' being the elder, led off in this 
union ; and the new paper was designated ' The 
Saint John Telegraph and Morning Journal,' with 
Mr. Livingston as proprietor, and Mr. Elder as 
leader-writer. 

"By this union a large list was secured for the 
daily and weekly issues, and improved machinery 
was introduced. But its journalistic was greater 
than its financial success. In 1871 Mr. Livingston 
sold the establishment to Mr. Elder at a pretty high 
figure, and retired from the paper. The editorial 
staff was then re-organized in all its departments; 
and the establishment has been under Mr. Elder's 
sole proprietorship and management since. In 1873 
the compound name was changed to the more simple 
title of ' The Daily Telegraph.' 

" During the year past Mr. Elder was ably assist- 
ed by Mr. Livingston in the editorial department, 
till the latter started ' The Watchman.' Mr. James 
Hannay, a barrister by profession, and deeply versed 
in the histor}^ of the Maritime Provinces, as well as 
in their staple industries, now occupies the chief place 



344 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

in Mr. Elder's staff. Mr. Elder is well read, and a 
forcible writer, and is a member of the Provincial 
legislature. 

" The ' Telegraph ' devotes itself not only to poli- 
tics, but gives a large share of its attention to trade 
and commerce and the great industries of the city 
and Provinces. The circulation of both the daily 
and weekly attests the fidelity with which all these 
interests have been cared for. The ofQce is finely 
organized in its mechanical department, which is in 
charge of Mr. Hugh Finlay ; and connected with it 
is a finely appointed job-office, under the supervision 
of Mr. A. F. Lugrin. 

" Hon. Timothy W. Anglin, who was born and 
educated in Ireland, came to this .city in 1848, and 
the next year, as proprietor and editor, started the 
' Morning Freeman ' as a weekly paper, and shortly 
after issued a tri-weekly, both of which he still 
continues. Mr. Anglin sat for Saint John County 
in the New Brunswick Assembly, from 1861 to 1866, 
when he was defeated on the question of confeder- 
ation. He has sat for Gloucester in the Dominion 
House of Commons, since the confederation, being 
returned by acclamation at the last general election. 
He was elected speaker in March, 1874." 

For the purpose of giving the readers of this vol- 



MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS OF INTEREST. 345 

ume, wlio will be nearly all strangers to Saint John, 
a better acquaintance with the character, enterprise, 
and ability of the people of Saint John, we select two 
citizens from the hundreds whose biographies ought 
to be written, and present one from the circle of 
public life and one from the business classes. The 
danger of such a sketch is found in the tendency 
among superficial thinkers to take the men mentioned 
to be exceptions, rather than examples, which would 
be a result very far from the writer's intention. 
Hon. S. L. Tilley, C.B., Lieutenant-Governor of New 
Brunswick, whose portrait appears on the first page of 
tliis book, was born at Queen's County in 1818, and 
is now in his fifty-ninth j^ear. He went to Saint John 
in 1830, and was engaged in business there for nearly 
twenty years. In 1850 he was called to represent the 
city in the legislature ; and in 1854 he was chosen a 
member of the government, where he continued for 
eleven years as a member of the executive council, 
and most of that time filled the office of provincial 
secretary, being the leader of the government. He 
was a Liberal in politics, and, when in the legislature, 
carried measures for the extension of the franchise, 
the construction of a system of railways, and other 
important measures bearing upon the progress of the 
country. He was also a member of the delegation 
which devised and carried out the confederation of 



346 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

tlie Provinces, and assisted in framing the Consti- 
tution of the Dominion. He was elected to represent 
Saint John in the Dominion Parliment, and for six 
years was a member of the government as minister of 
customs, and later as minister of finance ; filling the 
duties of each with great ability and practical sa- 
gacity. He was appointed lieutenant-governor in 
November, 1873, for the term which expires in 1878. 
This appointment was received with satisfaction by 
all parties ; and the numerous banquets given to him, 
in which all shades of politics united, and the hearty 
words of admiration for his personal character and 
moral worth there uttered, were indorsed by the en- 
tire population, with whom he is a great favorite. 
He has ever been an advocate of temperance princi- 
ples, and is the first governor who carried his prin- 
ciples into Government House, where he had the 
courage to entertain his guests of every degree with- 
out violating the solemn pledge of his youth. He is 
well known to many throughout the United States, 
by his addresses at public meetings in various parts, 
and is especially endeared to the people of the North- 
ern States, because that throughout the whole of the 
struggle with the Rebellion he was ever the defender of 
the Constitution, and a firm friend of the Union cause. 
He is a forcible and pleasant- speaker, a keen debater, 
and, when roused by opposition, there are few who 



MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS OF INTEREST. 347 

can carry their audience with them more effectually. 
He is genial, kindly, sjanpathizing, and a true friend. 
At tlie news of this great calamity, he at once put 
himself in communication with his Government, to 
devise means for alleviating the distress, and, by per- 
sonal intercourse with his old friends and fellow-citi- 
zens, cheered them in their great trouble. He was 
also a loser in the great fire, but to what extent 
cannot yet be ascertained. 

Mr. John Boyd, a private citizen of Saint John,' 
and a member of the prominent mercantile firm of 
Daniel & Boyd, presents one of those examples of 
sterling business integrity, and social worth, of which 
it is always pleasant and profitable to write. His 
influence in the Province of New Brunswick, and es- 
pecially in the city of Saint John, is hardly exceeded 
by that of any public official ; and it has been ob- 
tained by steady and careful industry, combined with 
an eminent desire, everywhere apparent in his acts, 
to be useful to his neighbors and countrymen. He 
has a brilliant genius, which fits hun for any position, 
and a happy, genial manner in his intercourse with 
strangers, which secures them at once as life friends. 
Mr. Boyd is a native of the North of Ireland, and a 
descendant of the race of sturdy Scottish Presby- 
terians, so many of whom have made their mark in 
every land. Mr. Boyd is now fifty years of age, and 



348 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

entered into business in the house with which he is 
now connected, known as the " London House," in 
1838, and has been there nearly forty years. His 
partner, Mr. T. W. Daniel, has been associated with 
the firm forty-two years. 

Mr. Daniel is foremost in nearly every good work, 
and universally respected and beloved. He, too, is a 
gentleman in the highest sense. He is a native of 
Bedfordshire, England. Mr. Daniel was in Saint 
John at the great fire of January, 1837, when the 
South Wharf, Water, and Prince William Streets were 
burned ; also at the great fire of August, 1839, when 
the North Wharf, Nelson Street, Dock Street, and 
Market Square were burned, and the " London 
House "in it ; and at the great fire of 1841, when 
Mr. Holds worth, one of the founders of his firm, was 
killed. His residence is at Rockwood, outside the 
city, one of the most charming spots in the Maritime 
Provinces, laid out with consummate skill ; one of the 
favorite visiting places of the tourist to Saint John, 
seeking its lovely scenery. 

Mr. Boyd has also come through these fires, but 
this of which we write has been the most severe to 
him. His residence, a noble brown-stone front on the 
Queen's Square, and one of the most elegant and no- 
ticeable in all the city, was destroyed ; and in it were 
many rare and valuable works of art, statuary, paint- 



MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS OF INTEREST. 349 

ings, engravings, &c., collected by liim during his 
man}^ visits to the Old World. He also had one of 
the finest private libraries on the continent, not a 
volume of which was saved. 

In that beautiful home, presided over by a wife 
who was almost as universally endeared to the people 
as himself, leading men from all parts of the world 
had been entertained ; and in it were to be found also 
many valuable mementos of these visits, not one of 
which has been saved. The lectures which Mr. Boyd 
had written,- and had delivered in many parts of the 
Provinces, in the United States, and Great Britain, 
during thirty years, were all destroyed. Not a frag- 
ment remains, as his dwelling was burned before he 
knew it, and while he was engaged in attempting to 
save his stock and warehouse. Mr. Boyd used his 
spare hours with marked advantage to all around 
him : his letters of travel published in the " Boston 
Journal " from 1852 to 1869 have been read by many 
in New England; and leading articles on general 
questions in the press, for a year past, were from 
his prolific pen. He wrote a valuable report on the 
railway necessities of the Province of New Bruns- 
wick, years ago. That report was adopted by the 
Board of Trade, and its suggestions carried out. 
From his lectures, readings, and speeches, he is said 
to have raised for public and private charities 



350 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

000, besides giving largely to them from his own 
means. 

He is a favorite on the lecture-platform, and his 
name always attracts large audiences. At the time 
of the fire he was so arranging his business that he 
should have more leisure to give to literary work, 
which he loved so well and performed so admirably. 
He has been a member of the school-board since the 
new law came into operation, and was chairman of 
the Saint John school-board, one of the most im- 
portant trusts in the city; and to his conciliatory 
method, judicious counsels, and liberal views, is the 
country largely indebted for the recent settlement of 
those vexed questions of difference between Protes- 
tants and Catholics, which are now happily nearly 
forgotton. 

Messrs. Daniel & Boyd lost heavily in this great 
fire, but they were largely covered by insurance. It 
is said they will receive directly and indirectly, in 
insurance, some $350,000 in gold ; their losses over 
their insurance will probably reach $20,000, a small 
proportion compared with many. Mr. Boyd's private 
losses will be heavy : he had only $14,000 insurance 
on his house, which with what it contained was 
worth not less than $30,000. The sympathy for them 
is universal and genuine ; and it was a happy an- 
nouncement that they intended at once to rebuild, 



MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS OF INTEREST. 351 

on tlie old spot, the widely-known " London House." 
We are told that one of the inspectors of the in- 
surance companies who was settling insurance claims 
stated publicly, after inspecting the books and 
statements of this house, that he had " been through 
the fires of Chicago and Boston, adjusting claims, but 
the best kept and most correct set of books he had 
ever seen were those of Daniel & Boyd." Such men 
as these are a necessity to the growth of a country ; 
and such as these are many of the merchants of Saint 
John, who will yet make their city even more pros- 
perous than in the past. Mr. Daniel is a quiet, cau- 
tious, unassuming English gentleman, — while Mr. 
Boyd is a genial, genuine Irishman, always ready for 
a joke, but ever with his eye on business, far-seeing 
and keen, not easily daunted, ready for work at all 
times ; knows what to do and how to do it ; is not 
afraid of taking hold of the whole himself ; and in the 
midst of this overwhelming calamity, while sur- 
rounded by all kinds of people asking his advice or 
assistance, he was courteous and kind to all, the 
poorest receiving his chief attention, while on the 
street his pleasant smile and cheery word to all he 
meets makes his presence sought by all. The Rev. 
George M. Grant of Halifax is said to have remarked, 
on a public occasion there, that there were three 
things in Saint John of which they were proud ; " the 



352 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

Skating Rink, the Victoria Hotel, and John Boyd ; " 
and that brilliant preacher, and author of "From 
Ocean to Ocean," might safely have said the same with 
regard to the feeling and pride of the inhabitants of 
the other Provinces also. Many deserving young men 
of business capacity, who had some capital of their 
own, have been assisted by them; and throughout the 
Provinces these are to be found in large numbers, 
now grown independent, but who ever in the strong- 
est terms express their gratitude to the friends who 
first gave to them the helping hand. 

The roster of the Saint John City Government at the time 
of the great fire included the following officials : — 

Mayor, Sylvester Z. Earle, Esq. ; Recorder, W. H. Tuck, 
Q. C. ; Common Clerk, B. Lester Peters, Q. C. ; Aldermen, 
Michael W. Maher, James Adams, John Kerr, Henry Duffell, 
Samuel L. Brittain, H. Adam Glasgow, William Peters, John 
C. Ferguson, Jarvis Wilson. Councillors, Elias S. Flaglor, Ed- 
ward T, C. Knowle, Richard Cassidy, Bartholomew Coxetter, 
William A. Quinton, J. Alfred Ring, Thomas B. Harrington, 
George H. Martin, Charles Emerson. City Chamberlain, Wil- 
liam Sandall ; Cleric to Mayor^s Office, Hiram G. Betts ; Deputy 
Common Clerk, J. Austin Belyea ; City Engineer, Hurd Peters ; 
City Auditor, Thomas V. Raymond ; Superintendent of Streets, 
James J. Lawlor ; Assessors of Taxes, John Wilson, Uriah 
Drake, James Sullivan ; Harbor Master, Charles S. Taylor ; 
Harbor Inspector, Joseph O'Brien ; Chief Engineer of Fire De- 
parimentj Thomas Marter ; High Constable, George Stockford. 



MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS OF INTEREST. 353 

The list of members of the Fire Department at the time of 
the fire inchided the followin,?; : — 

Thomas Marter, Chief Engiueer ; Samuel Diinlap, No. 1 Dis- 
trict, engineer; George Drake, No. 2 District, engineer; 
John Wilson, No. 3 District, engineer. No. 1 Engine : G. M. 
Matthews, engineman ; Henry Brazillian, assistant engineman ; 
Elias Belyea, driver. No. 2 Engine : Samuel Piercey, engine- 
man ; Thomas McChristal, assistant engineman ; John Lane, 
driver. No. 3 Engine ; James Melick, engineman ; Hiram 
Webb, assistant engineman ; George Corbett, driver. Hose 
Company, No. 1 : J. T. Magee, foreman ; Robert Magee, 
assistant foreman ; Alfred Carr, William Kee, John Kee, John 
Magee, Stephen Munford, William Griffiths, sen., William 
Griffiths, jun., Charles Magee. Hose Company, No. 2 : Wil- 
liam Neal, driver ; Andrew Lawson, foreman ; William Quig- 
ley, assistant foreman ; Joseph Duffell, secretary ; Robert Lowe, 
William Reed, W. H. Drake, G. T. Whitenect, William Mel- 
vin, William Reed, 2d, Herbert Spiller, John Robertson, David 
Stockford, Thomas Rankine, Frank Barnes. Hose Company, 
No. 3 : William Cummings, foreman ; George Blake, assistant 
foreman ; Joseph Mason, Robert Torrens, Joseph Noble, Sam- 
uel Laskey, John Knollin, John Shields, Charles Fletcher, 
George Jackson, Edward Lantalum, Dennis Costigan. Hook 
and ladder : W. A. Smith, driver ; John Jackson, captain ; 
John Rankine, secretary ; James Carr, John LeLaseur, Wil- 
liam Bowman, George Baldwin, W. A. Magee ; driver of coal- 
wagon, Walter Welsford. 

The insurance companies, who had losses in the 
fire to the amount of nearly seven millions of dollars, 
were very prompt in adjusting losses ; and several of 



354 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

the more prominent companies contributed liberally 
toward the relief fund. Their promptness and liber- 
ality received the commendation of all English- 
speaking people. They nearly all united in an agree- 
ment not to insure frail wooden buildings, and thus 
contributed very materially toward the permanent 
character of the buildings which succeeded those 
destroyed. The companies having the largest losses 
and the estimate risks are stated to be the following : 
Queen, 1700,000; North British and Mercantile, 
1600,000; Lancashire, |400,000 ; Provincial, 157,000; 
Liverpool, London, and Globe, $480,000 ; Guardian, 
1400,000 ; Canada Fire & Marine, $47,500 ; Citizens', 
$140,000; National, $123,000; Royal, $500,000; 
Commercial Union, $400,000 ; Royal Canadian, $350,- 
000 ; Western, $96,400 ; Lnperial, $300,000 ; JEtna, 
$220,000; Hartford, $190,000; Phoenix of Brook- 
Ijn, $60,000 ; British America, $22,000 ; Stadacona, 
$320,000 ; Central of Fredericton, $60,000 ; Saint 
John Mutual, $75,000 ; Northern, $200,000 ; Canada 
Agricultural, $4,000. 

An editorial notice of the insurance companies 
and their losses, published in Saint John soon after 
the fire, contained the following item of interest in 
this connection : " The Maritime Mutual Fire In- 
surance Company (capital $1,000,000) went up in 
the smoke of the big fire, and no vestige of it re- 



MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS OF INTEREST. 355 

mainetli. The premium notes and assessment and 
stock-books were burned up in the safe, and there is 
nothing left of the compan}^ except the policies in 
the hands of the insurers. Notice is given that ' it 
has now ceased altogether.' The fire has -staggered 
several of the companies. Tli% Mutual, which is a 
Saint John institution, has made an assessment on 
its shareholders. The Central of Fredericton is 
taking measures to meet the indebtedness incurred. 
The Provincial of Toronto has suspended business, 
but declares it will pay up. The Stadacona is asking 
time from its creditors. English and American com- 
panies, and some of the Canadians too, are meeting 
their liabilities, and proceeding with business." 

Those unfortunate people who insured their dwell- 
ings in local mutual companies, and who were left 
with worthless policies, were the especial subjects 
of sympathy ; and they presented a numerous class. 
Many a humble home on leased land was insured 
in such companies, and utter destitution followed as 
a consequence. The true principle of fire-insurance 
is seen in the distribution of losses as widely as pos- 
sible, and each city ought to insure in companies 
established in other cities. Insuring in "home com- 
panies " comes too near the act of " insuring our 
own property," which means having no insurance 
at all. 



356 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

The charitable measures adopted by the Little 
Wanderers' Home of Boston, U. S., were thus men- 
tioned in a daily paper published in that city: 
" Mr. R. B. Graham, agent of the Baldwin Place 
Home for Little Wanderers, arrived home on Friday 
from Saint John, with a large company of poor chil- 
dren, who will be cared for at the Home until ar- 
rangements can be made for their support here. Ten 
of the number are from the Protestant Orphan Asy- 
lum. Among the others are four sisters of a family 
reduced from a position of comfort to extreme want. 
Three of them, who are j^oung women, have already 
found employment in Boston families, and another 
will remain at the Home. There are four children 
of another family, and three of another in the party, 
which numbers twenty-six in all. They went by 
rail, free tickets having been given by the European 
and North American, the Maine Central, and the 
Eastern Railroads. At Bangor the children were 
furnished with refreshments by Mr. Nye, keeper of 
a restaurant in the Maine Central Depot, and Mr. J. 
L. Crosby, city treasurer, was at hand looking after 
the wants of the little ones. The depot-master at 
Vanceboro', Mr. Robinson of Saint Andrews, and 
the conductor on the European and North American 
Railway, also aided in providing food for the party. 
Saint John and other places in the Provinces have 



MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS OF INTEREST. 357 

contributed liberally for the support of the Baldwin 
Place Home in former years ; and its managers cheer- 
fully volunteered to open the doors of the house at 
this time." 

A prominent gentleman of Saint John, in a letter 
to the author, mentioned the following incidents of 
the great disaster : — 

A resident on Queen's Square sent her little son, 
aged nine years, for help. When he had gone -a 
short distance, he was surrounded on all sides by the 
burning houses ; the firemen poured water on him, 
and he continued on his way, and accomplished his 
mission. 

When asked why he went on under such circum- 
stances, his reply was worthy of a true soldier : " My 
mother sent me ; and Iliad to do what she told me." 

Everywhere one hears incidents illustrative of the 
courage and devotion of the noble women. We can- 
not recall them all ; but after depicting scene after 
scene, every husband praising his wife as the best, 
they would end with the exclamation, " No use talk- 
ing : one woman is worth six men at a time like 
this." And it was so ; for when strong men were 
quivering before the blast of this terrible whirlwind 
of disaster, and almost sinking under the weight of 



358 GREAT FIRE IN SAINT JOHN. 

their losses, these brave women would cheer them 
with their hopeful words, " Never mind : we are 
saved to each other, and what more need we care 
for ? " Had these been the words of enthusiastic 
young lovers, one could have understood them ; but 
they were the utterances of many a one going down 
the hill of age, and who had not the energy which 
nerved their hands in the years gone by. 

Among the applicants for relief, one receiving an 
order for a barrel of flour stopped to ask the ques- 
tion, " Shure, and wud yez be plaised to till me what 
brand it is to be ? " 

Another says, " They till me that there's to be a 
thousand dollars for ivery man that was burned out ; 
and, feth, whin I wint down for my share, all that I 
got was only a dhurty matthress." 

Such are some of the applicants ; but among others 
would be seen the tenderly reared lady, who had 
every comfort in her beautiful home, now reduced to 
the hard necessity of begging for the supply of her 
daily wants and for a little clothing, having lost all 
but the garments in which she stood before them. 

Thus ends our story of the great fire in Saint 



MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS OF INTEREST. 359 

John. And if other similar disasters shall be 
averted by the lessons which the foregoing pages 
teach, and if the sympathy and aid for the unfortu- 
nate but brave inhabitants of the devastated city 
shall be extended or strengthened hereby, the high- 
est purpose of the author will have been gained, and 
he will feel that his efforts herein contained were 
not without their measure of success. 



OCT 8 1,901 . 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



017 397 610 



